
MIDLANDS HURRICANES 52 WHITEHAVEN 24
IAN GOLDEN, Alexander Stadium, Sunday
MIDLANDS put on a classy performance, for the first hour at least, to ease past Whitehaven and go through to the second round of the 1895 Cup.
They led from the second minute of the match. After kicking a high bomb on the final tackle of their first set, the ball was spilled and from the scrum, Travis Corion dived over in the corner.
Jake Sweeting converted well, as he would for eight of the Hurricanes’ nine tries in all including Matty Hanley’s first, picking up a pin-perfect Sweeting tip to run over unchallenged, soon after.
Whitehaven got on the board on 16 minutes. A good set of passes ended with Ellis Nixon running over, and Kieran Tyrer converted to halve the deficit.
On 22 minutes, it was 18-6. From a penalty, Midlands again played a strong set and Tom Wilkinson found a gap to run through for his side’s third try.
Their fourth came just after the half-hour mark. Winning a second set thanks to a Haven knock-on, Midlands worked their way up from halfway culminating in Ross Oakes diving over in the corner.
Before half-time they had a fifth try. Ethan Bickerdike tripped as he looked to pick up a long kick, resulting in a goal-line drop-out, and from that set Hanley finished off a good passing move.
Sweeting couldn’t land a difficult kick – his only miss – but Midlands were 28-6 up at the break.
Less than three minutes into the second half, Midlands again played an excellent move to score. Hanley caught the ball from a high bomb, offloading to Sweeting who happily grounded and converted.
Whitehaven had spent less than five minutes with the ball in Midlands’ half during the first 40 minutes and even when they looked dangerous in the first 20 minutes of the second period, they wasted their chances.
From a good-looking Whitehaven attack, Oakes intercepted and ran the first 40 metres to set up Midlands’ next try. He passed to Hanley who completed the other 50 metres.
Then it happened again. This time it was Todd Horner who intercepted on his own ten-metre line, sprinting the full length himself and scoring under the sticks.
Oakes was the next to score, grounding in the corner for his second of the game to bring up the half-century of points.
Horner looked for a further try, which would have been Midlands’ tenth, but he dropped the ball as he tried desperately to get through the last line of defence.
After that, it was all Whitehaven. Brad Brennan scored the first of their revival, converted by Jay Weatherill who then scored one of his own as Whitehaven put on their best move of the match to break open the tiring home defence.
And to finish, Mason Lewthwaite picked up a grubber to score and Weatherill again converted.
GAMESTAR: Ross Oakes scored a couple of good tries, created another and ran hard.
GAMEBREAKER: Two tries in the first ten minutes of the second half gave Midlands a lead that was too much for Whitehaven.
MATCHFACTS
HURRICANES
1 Todd Horner
24 Matty Hanley
3 Ryan Johnson
4 Ross Oakes
5 Travis Corion
6 Jake Sweeting
21 Sully Medforth
20 Elliot Morris
14 Aiden Roden
10 Sam Bowring
11 Tom Wilkinson
15 Aaron Willis
13 Mikey Wood
Subs (all used)
9 Danny Barcoe
17 Keiran Moran
18 Zeus Silk
22 Jose Kenga
Tries: Corion (2, 47), Hanley (8, 36), Wilkinson (22), Oakes (31, 58), Sweeting (43), Horner (54)
Goals: Sweeting 8/9
WHITEHAVEN
4 Ethan Bickerdike
1 Aaron Burns
3 Scott Egan
2 Mitchell Todd
5 Jay Weatherill
6 Kieran Tyrer
26 Jack Newbegin
16 Brad Brennan
14 Luke Collins
17 Karl Garner
15 Mason Lewthwaite
21 Ellis Nixon
13 Jack Kellett
Subs (all used)
24 Josh Blinkhorn
12 Clarke Chambers
23 Tom Farren
18 Aaron Turnbull
Tries: Nixon (16), Brennan (68), Weatherill (71), Lewthwaite (77)
Goals: Tyrer 1/1, Weatherill 3/3
SCORING SEQUENCE: 6-0, 12-0, 12-6, 18-6, 24-6, 28-6; 34-6, 40-6, 46-6, 52-6, 52-12, 52-18, 52-24
Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Hurricanes: Ross Oakes; Whitehaven: Jay Weatherill
Penalty count: 3-3
Half-time: 28-6
Referee: Adam Williams