Two tries early in the first half kick-started the offense for the Thunder men’s rugby team who blew out the Fleming Knights on Sept. 27 at Twin Elm Rugby Park.
The tries were just the first of nine as the Thunder would go on to stomp Fleming by a score of 62-3 in the men’s home opener to push their early season record to 2-0.
Precision passing by Algonquin allowed winger Eric Vieira to fly down the left wing for the first try of the game.
More brilliant passing opened the Knights defense and allowed the Thunder to waltz right through the flimsy Fleming defense.
“It’s super key to be the first ones on the board,” said Thunder centre Liam Birkwood. “It gets your team motivated, gets that momentum up, everyone gets fired up right off the bat and you just keep scoring.”
And keep on scoring they did as the Thunder would rattle off 12 more points before the half was over.
Though Tomlinson was happy with the effort, he still sees many things that the team needs to work on if they want to improve for the playoffs.
“It was a commanding score but we’ve got a lot of things to work on,” said Thunder head coach Geoff Tomlinson. “Our ball retention and continuity wasn’t where we wanted it to be. I also thought our tackling was poor.”
Even with coach Tomlinson’s assessment of his team’s tackling, Algonquin has only given up six points in their first two games while scoring 82.
However, coach Tomlinson still sees things the team needs to work on defensively.
“We’re looking for excellence,” said Tomlinson. “Excellence is very hard to achieve and it means people working hard and being accountable. We were over 10 missed tackles in this match and it’s unacceptable.”
Tomlinson is hoping to see strong effort next week as well.
“I’m hoping for the same effort,” said Tomlinson. “We had a tough time down in Seneca but because it’s at home I think the guys will be a little bit more relaxed.”
The Thunder will take on the Seneca Sting at Twin Elm next week where they will look to improve their record to 3-0.
The Thunder beat the Sting in their season opener 22-3 last week but Birkwood expects Seneca to give them all they can handle.
“Were expecting a hard battle,” said Birkwood. “No game we go into is an easy battle. It’s rugby after all.”