Workington Town endured an afternoon to forget on Tyneside, as they were swept aside by a clinical Newcastle Thunder at Kingston Park Stadium.

Bolstered by the arrival of Samoan international and veteran of over 150 NRL games Matty Wright, the home side ran rampant in a 10-try showing that moved them up to third in the Betfred League One table.

The afternoon started with promise for the visitors, as they repelled an aggressive opening attacking set from their hosts and set themselves up deep in the Thunder half as a well-placed kick yielded a superb 40/20.

It proved to be one of very few highlights in the opening half hour as Thunder went on a rampage that saw almost everything they tried come off.

After riding out that initial pressure, Newcastle were two tries to the good within the opening 15 minutes as a reset of the tackle count allowed them to work Joe Brown in for a try out wide, before a tap back of a bouncing ball into the field of play found the hands of Wright for his debut try.

Looking to bounce back from that double blow, which missed conversions, saw Thunder only eight points to the good, Workington played out a good attacking set and had looked to have pinned Newcastle back in their own half.

That was before an unkind bounce sat the ball up for on-loan Hull KR starlet Mikey Lewis to pluck it out of the air and race 80 metres for a solo score.

When a Taulapapa brace brought up a 22-0 lead with just 25 minutes gone, it looked like it was going to be a long afternoon for Chris Thorman’s side, but to their credit, the stemmed the flow and closed out the half very much on the front foot.

They carried that momentum into the start of the second and opened their account for the day after forcing Newcastle into defending a pair of repeat sets thanks to penalties and handling errors.

Attempting to field the ball on a fifth tackle kick, the hosts knocked on 10m out from their line and from the resultant scrum, Town worked their way over for a short range effort from Sean Penkywicz.

It sparked a passage of tit-for-tat scoring between the sides as Taulapapa’s hattrick score on 55mins got the Thunder steamroller back underway, before Workington hit back soon after as Jamie Doran embarked on a mazy run to score under the posts.

It was only a temporary spell of parity however as Thunder conjured up four unanswered tries to put the game to bed as their half-backs continued to call the tune.

Failing to deal with a Lewis high ball allowed Matty Wright to pick off his second try of the day, before the half-back turned from provider to scorer as Newman played the 17-year-old into a gap for his second long distance run in of the afternoon.

Lewis became the hattrick hero as the duo repeated the trick in the closing stages, before Rhys Clarke rounded things out with a close range crash over on the sound of the final hooter.

Match Facts

Thunder: Clegg, Taulapapa, Brown, Gill, Wright, Newman, Lewis, McAvoy, Carlile, Edwards, Clarke, Fitzsimmons, Aldous, Luckley, Blanke, Simons, Aldous

Tries: Brown (11) Wright (13, 64) Lewis (16, 67, 74) Taulapapa (19, 25, 57) Clarke (80)

Goals: Lewis 1/5, Newman 0/1 Wright 3/4

Town: Fieldhouse, Mellor, Wellington, Singleton, Walsh, Doran, Russell, Scholey, O’Donnell, Moimoi, Hewiit, Maudling, Tickle, Wilkes, Dawson, Curwen, Penkywicz

Tries: Penkywicz (48) Doran (59)

Goals: Doran 1/2

Penalties: 5-5

Half-time: 22-0

Referee: Tom Crashley

Attendance: 1,077

Star Man: Jamie Doran