Whitehaven continue to amaze with performances that are rewriting the record books as well as expectations.
A 36-22 win at Bradford Bulls this afternoon, aligned to London’s 32-22 defeat at York, means that Whitehaven have made the Championship play-offs.
This did not even figure in the wildest dreams of coach Gary Charlton and his assistant Jonty Gorley who is to take over from him next year. Their pre-season target was to survive in the Championship.
Now they are looking at a play-off game next Saturday (ko 3.15pm) at Halifax having recently beaten the Panthers in west Cumbria. Halifax lost today, 12-10 at home to Batley.
In coming from 16-0 down to win the game, Haven were scoring their first win over Bradford for 50 years and their first success at Odsal in 57 years.
Charlton, who will become Director of Rugby in 2022said: “We’re full of confidence even though we were poor for the first 30minutes. The lads just don’t know the meaning of defeat at present.
“To come back from that deficit and put over 30 points on Bradford at home was an exceptional performance.”
Haven had shipped three tries to go 16-0 behind but Haven had clawed their way back to 16-12 at the interval.
Lachlan Walmsley collected a kick before slipping a pass to Tom Walker and the big prop crashed over. Walmsley converted.
Then just before half-time a lovely kick from Louis Jouffret was collected by Walmsley and he fed the ball back to the Frenchman to score. Walmsley converted.
The momentum was still with Haven after the resumption and a great break from Tom Wilkinson opened up the space for Greg McNally to cross and Walmsley’s conversion gave the Cumbrians the lead for the first time.
The Bulls just didn’t seem to have any answers as Whitehaven continued to dominate them and after a burst from Walmsley it was Chris Taylor who went in for the fourth try which was converted for an eight point lead.
The rampage continued when Dion Aiye broke through and put Jouffret in for his second try, again converted by Walmsley.
Haven’s dominance continued when Walmsley got on the end of a chip from Jouffret and then landed his sixth conversion.
Bradford did score a late converted try but it was only for statistical purposes – they had been well beaten by them
