By Arielle Follett
When Loyalist was hit with a yellow card, the Thunder took that time to strike for a full 10 minutes, scoring nearly 21 points.
The game on Oct. 19 at the South Nepean Rugby Park ended with a score of 60-5 for the Thunder, allowing them their first home game win this season and securing a third place spot in the east division.
This is the team’s second win in a row after three tough losses. The team’s record is 3-3 going into the playoffs.
“We played well as a team and we felt organized,” said scrum half and wing, Miguel Palomino. “We made a couple of handling errors but it was a cold game.”
Coach Geoff Tomlinson saw the effects of the cold on his players.
“Our hands weren’t working well because of it,” he said.
Handling errors were what allowed the Lancers to score their first points all season against the Thunder.
“It was a letdown for about 10 minutes in terms of effort,” Tomlinson said. “The guys were able to get back in there though. They realized that when the opponent is on the ground you’ve really got to press the life out of them.”
Tomlinson pointed out captain Brian Hue and vice-captain Phil Assad as stars of the game.
“Not to dissuade from anyone else on the team,” he said. “When every guy is doing their job like they were today, it comes down to leadership and those guys were leading by example.”
Hue was also happy with the team’s performance.
“It was a great boost for us, having a huge win before playoffs,” said Hue, who scored eight points in converts.
Tomlinson was especially proud to see his team’s performance in the second half.
“We’ve struggled with performance in the second half all year but not today,” he said. “We started slow but we were able to get that momentum back.”
The Thunder scored their first points early in the game, triggering a fighting spirit in the Lancers. The team had trouble keeping the ball in their hands for a while but quickly recovered.
“We didn’t touch the ball for around 10 minutes,” said Tomlinson. “We just started making more consistent tackles and the boys really picked up their defensive game.”
The team learned many lessons from this game that will be valuable to them approaching playoffs on Oct. 25.
“We need to be able to close the game,” Palomino said. “We’ve suffered losses before from not being able to play the full 80 minutes so we need to play as a team for the full game.”
Captain Hue agreed.
“Now we need to focus on our game and not let any other teams get into our heads,” he said.
Tomlinson feels confident going into the playoffs after this game.
“The type of game we played was direct and we have to play that way to win in the playoffs,” he said. “We were able to play a playoffs-style game, right down to that tough cold weather and that sets up well.”