WHITEHAVEN 4 SHEFFIELD EAGLES 11
JORDAN WEIR, The Ortus REC, Sunday
SHEFFIELD, who had a two-try star in Kieran Gill, were made to work hard for their victory in the first of back-to-back meetings with Whitehaven, with a Challenge Cup second-round clash in South Yorkshire on Saturday coming up.
The hosts in this encounter might have been beaten, but there were plenty of positives on the Cumbrians’ return to Championship action.
The first half was an even contest with high completion rates from both sides despite the soft pitch and wet weather.
Whitehaven lost Ethan Bickerdike in the early stages for a head assessment from which he later returned.
With defences on top, it looked set to be scoreless at half-time – until six minutes before the hooter.
Aaron Turnbull broke through the middle of the field and was one on one with Matty Marsh before having Jack Newbegin in support on his right-hand shoulder.
The prop elected to keep hold of the ball to the despair of the supporting halfback, but he had made the correct decision as on the following play, Ciaran Walker’s delicate grubber enabled Mitchell Todd to dive on the ball in the left-hand corner to grab the contest’s opening score.
Walker slipped while attempting the conversion, which was missed.
The second half started with the Eagles on the front foot and the third quarter proved to be the pivotal one as centre Gill showed why he is highly regarded as one of the best players in his position in the division.
The man signed from Bradford showed a range of skills to cross for two tries after the home side allowed their opponents up the field by conceding a six-again and a penalty respectively in the build-up to the scores.
On 44 minutes, Gill found a gap in a home defence which had defended 13 consecutive tackles to saunter over from short range. Jordan Lilley’s conversion attempt missed, so it was 4-4.
And on 53, Lilley, also signed from Bradford, and Gill combined with the former’s kick in behind collected one-handed by the latter, who darted in to ground between the posts and leave his teammate with a simple goal.
On 67 minutes, the gap was extended to eleven points as Lilley slotted over a field-goal from twelve metres out after a previous attempt was missed.
Whitehaven felt they had reduced the deficit in the final five minutes when Walker looked to have taken advantage of a Joe Brown fumble, but the score was ruled out as Bickerdike was judged to have tackled Brown without the ball.
GAMESTAR: Kieran Gill’s two tries on debut showed he’ll be a key signing for Sheffield.
GAMEBREAKER: Jordan Lilley’s field-goal sealed the Eagles’s success.
MATCHFACTS
WHITEHAVEN
18 Cole Walker-Taylor
19 Dave Eccleston
1 Jordan Burns
4 Ethan Bickerdike
2 Mitchell Todd
6 Ciaran Walker
7 Jack Newbegin
10 Jordan Thomson
9 Ellison Holgate
20 Marc Shackley
11 Connor Holliday
12 Rio McQuistan
13 Jack Kellett
Subs (all used)
16 Brad Brennan
17 Aaron Turnbull
22 Brett Bailey
23 Ben Pearce
Tries: Todd (34)
Goals: Walker 0/1
EAGLES
1 Matty Marsh
2 Joe Brown
4 Kieran Gill
3 Josh Hodson
5 Billy Walkley
6 Kai Morgan
7 Jordan Lilley
22 Masi Matongo
17 Harry Bowes
10 Martyn Reilly
11 Connor Bower
12 Joel Farrell
13 Jack Bussey
Subs (all used)
8 Conor Fitzsimmons
9 Corey Johnson
15 George Griffin
20 Lewis Peachey
Tries: Gill (44, 53)
Goals: Lilley 1/2
Field-goals: Lilley (67)
SCORING SEQUENCE: 4-0; 4-4, 4-10, 4-11
Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of The Match
Whitehaven: Ciaran Walker; Eagles: Kieran Gill
Penalty count: 4-7
Half-time: 4-0
Referee: Kevin Moore
Attendance: 824