Whitehaven suffered a resounding defeat at Halifax Panthers in the Betfred Championship, going down 60-0.
To rub salt into the wounds four of the 11 Halifax tries were scored by former Whitehaven winger Lachlan Walmsley who is as popular at the Shay as he was at the LEL Arena.
Eight of the tries were converted by Joe Keyes while Whitehaven were kept scoreless throughout 80 painful minutes.
It took only three minute for Halifax to get on the scoresheet and it was the Australia-born Scottish international Walmsley who finished off with a dash down the touchline. Keyes showed he had his kicking boots with him by notching from the touchline.
In the early stages Whitehaven didn’t help their cause by making unforced errors and they paid the penalty on 11 minutes when a move broke down and Halifax profited from the counter.
Keyes dropped a kick into the corner where it bounced perfectly for Walmsley to collect and go in for his 16th try of the season. Keyes banged over another touchline conversion.
Three minutes later they were in again. Louis Jouffret, another former Whitehaven player, sold a perfect dummy to break through and his pass put James Saltonstall diving in at the corner. This time Keyes was unlucky as his touchline conversion attempt hit the post.
The fact that the re-start kick went out on the full rather summed up their afternoon up to that point – and it didn’t get any better.
Brandon Moore was held-up on the line as Halifax maintained the pressure but Whitehaven did dig in at this point and defended well.
They also built a couple of promising attacks when grubber kicks from both Josh Rourke and Jamie Doran were a touch too long.
Halifax regained the initiative in the final stages of the first-half and twice full-back Woodburn-Hall sliced through the Haven defence to score tries which were converted by Keyes for a 26-0 half-time lead.
Two minutes after the re-start it was business as usual for Halifax as Walmsley completed his hat-trick and Keyes added the extras.
It was clearly going to be a long afternoon for the West Cumbrians and on 48 minutes the Panthers struck again. A well-placed kick from Keyes was followed-up by Ben Kavanagh to make the touchdown.
On 55 minutes a clever show and go from Keyes set up a try under the posts for Eribe Doro and once again Whitehaven put the re-start kick out of play on the full.
Keyes was outstanding for Halifax, running the game and constantly providing opportunities for team-mates as the Haven defenders floundered in their efforts to deal with him.
On the hour he produced another dummy to wrong-foot the Haven defenders and Jacob Fairbank reaped the benefit by taking the pass to score.
The Halifax fifty came up on 65 minutes when Doro had a simple finish, barging over from short range.
The final try came on 72 minutes when Walmsley picked-up a loose ball five metres from the Whitehaven line and went the length to score his fourth try.
