Whitehaven produced a stirring fight-back to record their first win of the Co-operative Championship season – and silence the critics.

They were trailing 20-10 at half-time to a lively Toulouse side and the groans were spreading around the Recreation Ground.

But Ged Stokes men responded well in the second-half as the French visitors were unable to add to their tally.

“It might shut-up our detractors – for a little bit anyway! The important thing is we thought we could still win that game and we showed that we would.

“We have seven first team players out so that says a lot for the quality of the squad we have at the club. I was very impressed with how we performed in the second-half against a quality side,” said Stokes.

It was substitute Carl Sice who sparked the Whitehaven revival with two tries early in the second-half to get them moving again.

Both his tries came in a two minute spell – the first when he chased a long kick from influential stand-off Carl Rudd and the second when he scooted over from dummy half.

That edged Haven ahead for the first time in the match at 22-20 and when Toulouse had centre Vincent Duport sent-off on 52 minutes for a dangerous tackle on Spencer Miller, the initiative was really with the Cumbrians.

Toulouse had opened brightly with a try on three minutes. A kick on last tackle from Nathan Wynn took a wicked bounce to deceive debutant full-back Ian Mort and in the melee of bodi3es diving in over the line to get a touch Rory Bromley was credited with the try. Wynn converted.

Whitehaven reduced the arrears soon afterwards, though, as Dylan Skee chased a kick through from Graeme Mattinson and won the race to the touchdown.

But then it was Toulouise who dominated affairs as Wynn and Sylvan Houles controlled the game at half-back.

It was no surprise when they scored again on 20 minutes. Houles made the space for second row forward Antoni Maria to crash over as he spun out a lovely, delayed pass.

A missed tackle proved costly as Bruno Ormeno had just about enough room to score in the corner, although he was injured in the process and took very little further part in the contest.

Whitehaven were pulled back into the game by Rudd who shimmied through the Toulouise defence to score the try and add the conversion.

But right on half-time Touluse got in again after a huge kick from Wynn had given them the platform for one last attack.

Houles was again the architect with another silky pass which saw Seb Planas take advantage of some poor defending to go in for the try which Wynn converted.

However Stokes tackled his interval team talk it worked for within five minutes Sice had grabbed his two tries and Haven were looking at a 22-20 advantage.

It was a much more controlled performance from Haven in the second half as their discipline improved and they were able to build pressure on the Toulouse defence.

After the sending-off Toulouse hardly looked capable of finding a way back into the game and as the handicapped French tired Haven emphasised their superiority with two tries in the final ten minutes.

Substitute Reece Fox drove over near the corner flag and then Mort put Rob Jackson in for a try to mark a satisfactory debut. Rudd landed both conversions. In some quarters the try was credited to Mort.

Whitehaven: Mort, Dawes, R. Jackson, D. Miller, Calvert, Rudd, Skee, M. Jackson, Mattinson, Amor, S. Miller, Hill, Govin. Subs (all used): Sice, Farrer, R. Fox, Thornley.

Referee: Jamie Leahy

Crowd: 1,181

MAL WALKER took the pictures at the Recreation Ground, featuring Kyle Amor and Graham Mattinson in possession and Rob Jackson scoring the last try for Haven.

Mal's prints can can be bought at £25 for an A4 framed and £40 for an A3 framed. Prints only are £10 A4 and £15 A3. 

---

Bookmark with: what are these?