MATCH REACTION // Chris Thorman praises player effort in opening round win.

Newcastle Thunder head coach Chris Thorman praised the efforts of his Newcastle Thunder side for kick-starting their Betfred Championship season on a high.

Sunday’s 6-18 away victory over Swinton Lions saw Thunder take the two points back to Kingston Park and get the season off to the best possible start.

Head coach Chris Thorman said: “I’m proud of the lads and proud of their efforts. We knew what we were going to be up against in Swinton and we knew it was going to be a tough challenge.

“They threw the ball around a lot but generally we were pretty resilient.

“We put ourselves under a little bit of pressure at times and I thought the try they scored just before half-time was a little bit against the flow.

“At the same time when we went into the break down on the scoreboard, we were still composed and I felt that we were winning the energy battle. I thought that it was very much-so in our favour.

“You can’t measure that in our sport but there are some indicators and tell-tale signs and all I said to the lads was that there’s no need to play different. Keep doing what you’re doing and the opportunity will present itself and it did in the end.”

The Thunder boss added: “I thought Alex Young took his two tries really well, I thought the pass selection from our ball players was really good. Nikau Williams also took his try really well too.

“It was a really tough hard fought championship game and if we’re going to do anything this year, we need to win games like we did today.

“We seemed a bit more energized from around the hour-mark.

“I thought Mitch Clark’s second spell off the bench was really good. Denive Balmforth was solid for us too and he’s only going to get better.

Acknowledging the importance of the win but maintaining focus on what lies ahead, Thorman said: “I’m a cranky bugger at the best of times but I can’t not be happy about that. It was really important to get the win.

“We’ve been growing as a team and as a group since we came together in November and with what we’ve been doing in training, you can sense the belief in the group and when that manifests with the performance on a Sunday afternoon, they believe in themselves even more and it makes them better players.

“It also makes you realise that you’re doing plenty of good work.

It’s only one game and there’s still a lot of work to be done but we cannot not acknowledge how good that win was in terms of where this group has come from.”

Newcastle Thunder’s next fixture seems them travel away to take on Toulouse Olimpique XIII on Saturday, February 11 (6pm KO).

Newcastle Thunder season tickets are also on sale now. From as little as £99 for adults and £10 for U16s, you can secure your seat HERE.