Whitehaven lost 50-4 at Leigh in their opening Championship game of the new season.
That was not entirely unexpected, given Leigh’s recent stay in Super League and avowed intention to go straight back up.
But what was not foreseen is that Whitehaven would play for several minutes with just 10 men as they had three men in the sin bin just before and after half-time.
Jake Moore, Andrew Bulman and Callum Phillips were all yellow-carded in a short space of time.
It’s hard enough going to play Leith with a full compliment but down to 10 men borders on the impossible.
It was to Whitehaven’s credit that they weren’t completely over-run and after trailing 28-0 at the interval, kept it to 22-4 in the second period.
Highlight for the Cumbrians came when they scored after 47 minutes when new Australian centre Will Evans capped his official League debut with an unconverted try wide-out from a play-the-ball.
Leigh’s debutant Nene McDonald had given them the lead with an unconverted try in the corner on seven minutes.
Whitehaven coach Jonty Gorley had been looking to keep Leigh out for as long as possible but on 12 minutes they scored again through Kieran Dixon and Ben Reynolds added the conversion.
The third try arrived on 24 minutes when Caleb Aekins wrong-footed the Whitehaven defence and went in for the try which Reynolds converted.
Haven were continually under pressure and after 27 minutes Keenan Brand burst through to take the pass from Stone who had broken a weak tackle, and score with Reynolds adding the extras.
Whitehaven were down to 11 players when Leigh scored their last try of the half through Tom Nisbet, converted by Reynolds. They were actually left to leave for the break with ten men as Phillips joined his team-mates in the sin-bin.
The second-half represented a real gritty effort from the Cumbrians with the travelling fans enjoying the Evans touchdown.
Leigh are a classy side, however, and they were able to add further tries from McDonald (2 to complete his hat-trick), Mark Ioane and Nisbet with Reynolds converting three.
