Thunder ready for first league game

Sunderland, in his second season with the club, is juggling his playing time in Worthing with his studies as a freshman at a university in London but his dedication to the cause is still as passionate as ever.

The former Thunder junior is also aware of the loss suffered to last season’s league, cup and play-off champions just two weeks ago and says that the team are up for the rematch.

He said: “I’m really looking forward to the first game of the season, we’ve used the previous games as pre-season, and I think we’re ready to make a positive start to the season, especially after the win we had over Brixton.

“Hopefully, we can build from this. Although we have already lost to Essex, it was probably our worst game so far, and we definitely feel we can be competitive with a team like them, hopefully, we can prove that on Saturday.”

Another ex-Thunder junior, Julian Stanley, who played alongside Sunderland with the under-18s, is looking forward to what he believes is the part of the season where the hard work in the National Trophy pays off in the regular season.

He said: “As a team, we’ve been looking forward to this game as it is the first league game and the league is most important and a chance for us get some revenge and see how much we have progressed from our 26-point loss two weeks ago.”

The last four encounters between the two sides have all ended up as victories for the Essex Leopards.

Thunder’s game with Leopards at Worthing Leisure Centre tips-off at 7.30pm, with doors opening at 6.10pm.

Thunder then travel to Westminster Warriors in the third round of the National Cup on Sunday (1.45pm).