NEWCASTLE Thunder maintained their perfect start to their pre-season with an emphatic 74-6 home win over Gateshead Storm, writes Joseph Pearson.

Sam Bowring’s hat-trick was the highlight as Thunder scored 14 tries and there were braces for Jacob Blades, Lee Mapals and Ali Blair.

Storm play in the third division of the National Conference and 12 of their squad have represented Thunder at youth or senior level, but they were no match for their opponents from League One.

Thunder head coach Stanley Gene said: “First of all I want to thank Storm for coming along and giving us giving us a really good game, they did really well, stood up and gave a good account of themselves and we wish them all the best for their season to come.

“From our point of view, I am very disappointed by the number of sets we completed. It was eight from 18 in attack and ten from 15 in defence and that is just not good enough.

“Against the big teams in League One, that will see us lose and we really need to get our skills right and get our attitude right for the games, otherwise we are going to be punished”.

Bowring opened the scoring in the very first minute as he went over in the corner and Mapals quickly doubled Thunder’s lead as he raced clear from a scrum deep within his own half.

Thunder were too strong and it was 18-0 after 15 minutes as Bowring scored his second with an interception try and Tom Capper dived over in the corner.

Storm hit back as David Cash’s converted try reduced the deficit but Blades’ extended the lead again and Evans Simons’ try on the stroke of half time put Thunder in a very commanding position at 30-6.

Matty Barron spun out of a tackle before crashing over to score Thunder’s first try of the second half and Ali Blair’s converted try minutes later made it 42-6.

Blades scored his second try following a great Thunder break in centre field and some excellent handling allowed the full back to touch down unchallenged.

Thunder’s tenth try came when Rhys Clarke dummied and broke through the line to score and prop Lee Fewlass reached out to score for another try after another break from Stamp.

Bowring completed his hat-trick and there were more late tries as Blair and Mapals both added to their earlier scores.