Fijian flying machine Joe Veramu scored five tries in Albury Thunder’s 62-6 victory over a hapless Cootamundra at Greenfield Park on Sunday.
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Veramu was unstoppable on his wing playing outside Etu Uaisele, scoring in the 12th, 39th, 54th, 61st and 77th minutes.
“Joe was good,” Thunder coach Tuki Jackson said.
“He has a union background.and is improving all the time.
“It was good to see him in some space.”
Veramu only found his way to Albury Thunder by chance after finding accommodation across the road from Greenfield Park and venturing over to training one night.
Thunder took just two minutes to score their first try when Riverina representative Dave Cowhan crashed over the line after making a 40m run just seconds earlier.
Joe Silafau, Veramu and Lachie Hampton followed up with tries in the opening 21 minutes before Cootamundra scored its one and only try under the posts in the 34th minute through lock Patrick Cameron.
The joy, however, was short-lived.
Thunder led 36-6 at half-time and Jackson had the luxury of resting some of his key players in the second-half.
Shannon Rupapere performed well at fullback with the exception of dropping one high ball, Levi Freeman terrorised the Cootamundra defence with some brutal runs and Ben Taylor continued his solid start to the season in the centres.
Promising youngster Bronson Meehan came off the bench in the 55th minute much to the delight of the home crowd.
Jackson described the win as a “mixed performance”.
“You have to take the good with the bad,” he said.
“All credit to Cootamundra for coming out here and playing us.
“At times in the first half for about 10 minutes they got us for two drop out sets due to our own errors and mistakes.
“That’s something we need to get better.”
Cootamundra, who can no longer field an under-18 side, took a depleted side into the clash and look odds-on to claim the wooden-spoon.
Thunder have no such problems sitting in third spot on the ladder with Jackson confident the new-look side has plenty of improvement left in it.
“I hope so,” he said.
“We will keep grinding it out and training every week.”
Thunder face a big test against Young at Alfred Oval on Saturday.
In other matches over the weekend, Temora edged out Kangaroos 28-16, Southcity defeated Tumbarumba 36-16 and Young belted an under-performing Brothers 42-12.
Thunder is sitting on top of the ladder in reserve grade, under-18s, League Tag and under-16s after five home and away rounds.