Whitehaven enjoy another dominant victory against Newcastle Thunder

WHITEHAVEN 66 NEWCASTLE THUNDER 6
JORDAN WEIR, Ortus REC, Sunday

IT WAS a second dominant performance in as many games as Anthony Murray’s Whitehaven ran in eleven tries to leave them second in the standings while the result of the previous week’s Cornwall game hangs in the balance.

The match was over as a contest after the first quarter with the Cumbrians crossing the line four times.

Haven opened the scoring in just the fifth minute as Jack Kellett crashed over underneath the posts following a pop-up pass from Luke Collins at dummy-half. Jordan Burns tagged on the conversion, as he would do for all eleven of Haven’s tries.

Confidence seemed to be flowing through the veins of the Cumbrians after their comprehensive victory last weekend and they seemed happy to look to play on the edges early in their sets, which came back to bite them in the eighth minute as Jake Dickinson intercepted a Jack Newbegin pass and ran untouched to reduce the deficit, with Alex Donaghy’s conversion levelling the scores.

But that was as good as it got for the visiting Thunder side as just two minutes later they were back behind the posts after allowing the kick-off to bounce multiple times. It landed in the hands of the Haven men and one tackle later Jordan Thomason powered over from short range.

They were soon followed with Kellett’s second and Mason Lewthwaite taking advantage of the visitors being penalised for offside at a drop-out to extend their advantage.

Both sides then began to make errors, with neither looking capable of completing back-to-back sets before gifting an error or penalty to their opponents.

But when Haven snapped out of their daze they scored another three tries before the half-time hooter.

Henry Hadfield grabbed his first Whitehaven try on the end a swift left-to-right passing move, leaving Hadfield space to ground on the edge. That was quickly followed by Burns backing up an Ethan Bickerdike break before Cameron Brown in the final seconds of the half kicked through, sensing Donaghy out of position, to secure Whitehaven’s seventh of the half.

The second half continued to be untidy, with Haven’s attacking style at times looking disorganised.

However, that didn’t stop Brad Brennan crashing over from short range in a carbon copy of Kellett’s first try, with the pop-up pass this time coming from Ellison Holgate.

Holgate turned from provider to scorer just before the hour mark. The former England Community Lion initially scooted out of dummy-half and ran left but, finding options limited, he checked back right and used his pace to exploit some lazy Thunder defence to saunter over the line and bring up 50 points for the hosts.

Kellett then secured his hat-trick in similar fashion to his first, with Collins again providing the pass from dummy-half to allow the forward to barge over once more.

Collins secured the final try of the game, but all the hard work was done by fellow Australian Brown as he worked hard to escape the clutches of the Newcastle defence following a loose ball before passing the ball back to Collins over the try line.

Burns ended the game with a personal haul of 26 points.

GAMESTAR: Jack Kellett goes from strength to strength in Haven colours and topped off his performance with three tries.

GAMEBREAKER: Mason Lewthwaite’s try at the end of the first quarter saw Haven gain an 18-point advantage and one they never looked in danger of losing.

MATCHFACTS
WHITEHAVEN
1 Jordan Burns
32 Mitchell Todd
4 Ethan Bickerdike
3 Chris Taylor
2 Henry Hadfield
7 Jack Newbegin
20 Cameron Brown
10 Jordan Thomson
14 Luke Collins
8 Jake Pearce
11 Connor Holliday
15 Mason Lewthwaite
13 Jack Kellett
Subs (all used)
9 Ellison Holgate
18 Aaron Turnbull
16 Brad Brennan
21 Ellis Nixon

Tries: Kellett (5, 14, 72), Thomson (10), Lewthwaite (19), Hadfield (33), Burns (36), Brown (40), Brennan (46), Holgate (57), Collins (76)
Goals: Burns 11/11

THUNDER
1 Alex Donaghy
2 Mac Walsh
3 James Farrar
4 Mike Hansen
5 Jake Dickinson
6 Charlie Yeomans
7 Elliot Shaw
10 Harry Lowery
9 Matty Rolls
8 Josh Stoker
11 Alex Taylor
12 Jacob Bateman
13 Toby Gibson
Subs (all used)
14 Sam Ackroyd
18 Harry Price
17 Jamie Gill
16 George Birch