WHITEHAVEN 26 MIDLANDS HURRICANES 16
JORDAN WEIR, Ortus REC, Sunday
A FIRST win since May ended Whitehaven’s losing streak at seven games as Anthony Murray’s side defeated Midlands in a see-saw battle under the grey Cumbrian skies.
Haven scored the opening three tries at just under a point a minute against a Hurricanes side who had already defeated them twice this season and who were searching for their first ever victory against Haven on their first visit since 2019, when they were the Coventry Bears.
Captain Connor Holliday made it successive try-scoring games as he landed on a neat Joe Lowe kick in behind to score his fourth of the season.
Dan Abram, who had walked out to a guard of honour to celebrate reaching 200 career appearance last time out, slotted over the conversion.
A Jack Kellett double soon followed with two tries in similar fashion, one of either side of the field. For the first, he crashed to the left-hand side of the posts before being on the end of a pop-up pass from dummy-half on the right-hand side of the field to become Haven’s joint top try scorer.
The Midlands hit back with two quickfire tries of their own, the first coming from Matty Hanley following a crossfield kick from loanee Will Brough. Brough landed the ball on a sixpence as Hanley outjumped his opposite winger to ground the ball in the left-hand corner.
Louis Roberts reduced the deficit even further in the right-hand corner but Brough failed with the goal attempt from out wide.
The half-time advantage was fourteen points as Haven scored late in the half through centre Mitchell Todd, who broke through an attempted tackle and ran 40 metres untouched to score his fourth of the season.
The second half saw a much tighter encounter with just the one try scored, which came in the early stages of the second half as Aiden Roden was able to saunter over from dummy-half. The former Haven loanee scooted from behind the tackle and didn’t have much opposition in front of him as he touched down for his fourth of the season. Brough tagged on the goal as the Canes reduced the deficit and swung the momentum in their favour.
But while they had the edge on Haven, they couldn’t reduce the gap, which was due partly to their own errors and partly to Haven’s strong defence.
The Hurricanes were held up over the line with just over ten minutes to go through the twisting and turning Ross Oakes, with the Cumbrians getting several defenders under the centre, much to his frustration.
And it was the home side who got the only other points in a tightly contested second half as Ellison Holgate was hauled down short of the line but in the tackle he was caught high by the Midlands defence and Haven immediately signalled to go for goal and the two points.
Abram duly added the goal and secured Haven’s first victory in eight games to halt an awful run for the Cumbrians.
GAMESTAR: Jack Kellett was back to his natural position after deputising at halfback last time out, grabbing two tries and leading his side to a much-needed victory.
GAMEBREAKER: A high tackle on Ellison Holgate late on gave Haven the opportunity to go for two points to ensure the victory would be theirs.
MATCHFACTS
WHITEHAVEN
6 Dan Abram
5 Jay Weatherill
4 Ethan Bickerdike
32 Mitchell Todd
22 Max Anderson-Moore
31 Joe Lowe
7 Jack Newbegin
10 Jordan Thomson
9 Ellison Holgate
8 Jake Pearce
11 Connor Holliday
19 Rio McQuistan
13 Jack Kellett
Subs (all used)
14 Luke Collins
21 Ellis Nixon
18 Aaron Turnbull
32 Dan Spencer-Tonks
Tries: Holliday (6), Kellett (13, 22), Todd (38)
Goals: Abram 5/5
HURRICANES
– Cian Tyrer
24 Matty Hanley
3 Ryan Johnson
4 Ross Oakes
25 Louis Roberts
– Will Brough
21 Sully Medforth
8 Jon-Luke Kirby
14 Aiden Roden
20 Elliot Morris
15 Aaron Willis
12 Josh Jordan-Roberts
13 Mikey Wood
Subs (all used)
9 Danny Barcoe
18 Zeus Silk
34 Lewis Peachey
27 Liam Kirk
Tries: Hanley (28), Roberts (32), Roden (49)
Goals: Brough 2/3
SCORING SEQUENCE: 6-0, 12-0, 18-0, 18-6, 18-10, 24-10; 24-16, 26-16
Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of The Match
Whitehaven: Jack Kellett; Hurricanes: Mikey Wood
Penalty count: 5-5
Half-time: 24-10
Referee: Carl Hughes
Attendance: 639