The Black and Yellows were outplayed by Surrey Storm in all but one quarter as they fell to a 55-49 in front of a sell-out crowd – and the Sky Sports cameras on Monday. They face a Jets side who are still searching for their first win of the season, something coach Dan Ryan expects will spur Thunder’s cross-Pennine rivals on to breaking that duck against his team this weekend. “We need to make sure we get out on court and execute what we want to do, whoever we are playing. He said: “It’s important that we learn from our losses. The Surrey game was actually very important for every player in the squad. Winning sometimes masks the areas of your game you need to improve on. Monday was a wake-up call for us,” he said.
Ryan sees the round seven game against Jets as a chance to right some wrongs from the tumultuous Surrey match and he added: “Things can turn quickly in this league and that’s exciting. You need to be on your game to beat anyone and that includes Jets. We need to bounce back and we will not be underestimating them.”
Roses games such as this often present surprising results, with Thunder pushed close in both fixtures against Jets in 2015 before sneaking a win, despite them being the favourites on both occasions. Thunder will need to improve certain areas of their game that deserted them on Monday, including holding on to their own centre pass and staying focused for the full 60 minutes, if they are to get past Jets. It is set up perfectly to be feisty and physical game and coach Ryan is expected to once again rotate his squad.
Jets v Thunder 4pm, Leeds Becket University.
Report by Denise Evans