Thunderbolts fall short on the road

Melbourne’s U20 Thunderbolts suffered their second loss of 2016, succumbing to the Warriors 16-30 on Sunday.

Attempting to negotiate one of the toughest road trips in the competition, Eric Smith’s side got off to the best possible start, scoring two tries in the opening ten minutes of play.

Josh Kerr opened the scoring after some quick ball movement by the young Storm side before fullback Jesse Arthars scored and converted his own try to hand the visitors a 10-point advantage.

The positive Storm start was met by an equally impressive response from the home side. Sparked into action, the U20 Warriors piled on the points, recording four unanswered tries to take a 16-10 lead into the half-time break.

With handling errors proving costly for Storm either side of the break, Kelvin Wright’s home side kept the pressure on kicking out to a 24-10 lead.

A Nat McGavin try gave the visitors hope with just over 10 minutes remaining in the contest before a late New Zealand four pointer killed off any hope of a comeback victory.

The Thunderbolts will be on the road again next week when they face the Sharks in Cronulla.

U20 Thunderbolts 16
Tries: Josh Kerr, Jesse Arthars, Nat McGavin
Goals: Jesse Arthars 2

Defeated by.

U20 Warriors 30