Whitehaven came from behind to win a tough opening Championship clash at home to Swinton Lions by 18-16.
They had gone in at half-time trailing 14-6 but had grabbed the lead with 11 minutes left and held on in what proved to be a feisty conclusion to the contest.
Jonty Gorley’s men have made some slow starts in pre-season games and this was another when they fell behind on three minutes.
New signing Noah Stephens made a great break and although he was brought down 20 metres out the Lions had the momentum, moving the ball wide for Andrew Badrock to score the opening try which ex-Haven goal-kicker Dan Abram converted.
After a good spell of Haven pressure was repulsed by strong Swinton defence the Lions broke out and when they were awarded a penalty Abram took the two points on offer.
Whitehaven were then really tested in defence and Swinton forced three consecutive drop-outs. When they get the ball from the clearing kick it was pushed wide and Jayden Hatton went in for the second Swinton try which Abram converted for a 14-0 lead.
The home side, at last, seemed to have woken up and they forced a goal-line drop-out which sparked an end-of-half surge and a much-needed score. It was Ryan King who charged over and Jake Carter landed the conversion.
Into the second-half and there was more clarity about Whitehaven’s play as they set off in determined fashion. They were rewarded with a second try on 48 minutes when James Newton pounced on a loose ball and Carter’s conversion cut the deficit to two points.
In Swinton’s first real attacking threat of the half they were awarded a penalty and Abram slotted it to take the advantage out to four points.
But generally it was Whitehaven calling the shots in the second half and on 69 minutes they moved the ball wide with Rio Corkhill finishing off in style for the third try to level the scores. Carter’s conversion nosed the home side in front.
In the last minute, after a skirmish following a scrum two players from each side were sent to the sin bin – George Roby and Josh Eaves for Swinton and the Haven pair of Newton and King.
Eleven against eleven never materialised as the final hooter sounded soon afterwards.
Afterwards Whitehaven coach Jonty Gorley expressed his delight at opening the season with a win after a hard, not always successful pre-season.
He said: “Swinton are a hard team to beat and from being 14-0 down we showed a lot of character to come back and win.
“Maybe in the first 20 minutes we gave away too much field position but after that, and for most of the second-half, we were the better team.
“The team that makes the least errors and works the hardest win games like this and in the conditions I was happy with our skill levels.
“We have four players out of our 23 strong squad out with injury and we will have to be looking at bringing players in before our next game against Barrow on Good Friday. We will be speaking to clubs about bringing players here before then.”
