WHITEHAVEN coach Anthony Murray has taken plenty of positives despite falling to defeat in each of the successive matches against Sheffield.
After narrowly losing at home to the Eagles in their Championship opener, Whitehaven were beaten 18-6 in round two of the Challenge Cup in South Yorkshire.
Their performance at the Steel City Stadium has created some selection dilemmas ahead of Sunday’s visit of Newcastle.
Murray said: “We put in a momentous stint and handled the surface well. We came here to play a bit of attacking rugby, especially coming out of yardage, and we did that on most occasions.
“We got ourselves into an arm wrestle and found ourselves in good field position and we were unfortunate to have a couple of tries disallowed. If they are given, it’s a different story.
“All in all, it was a really positive afternoon against a really good Sheffield team tipped to be up there in the top half of the table.”
Murray made five changes to his side between the two games, with scrum-half Joe Lowe, prop Jake Pearce, secondrow Ellis Nixon, Lewis Brown and Josh Blinkhorn all coming in for the cup-tie.
He added: “We’re creating competition for places. I’ve always said if you come to Whitehaven, you’ll get an opportunity to play and I’m a man of my word.
“You know you’ve got a full squad to utilise and give them an opportunity and they took it, and they have given me a headache now.
“Newcastle have made their intentions clear and they’re tipped to be top six and have made some shrewd signings, so it’s going to be a tough fixture, and we did rest a few with that in mind.”
Pic: Jake Borrill