Published at 11:11, Thursday, 26 April 2012

IT’S all over now – at least as far as hosting two World Cup games is concerned. Yesterday’s shock decision that our much vaunted but contentious Pow Beck sports stadium can’t go ahead as planned means that West Cumbria will not directly take part in what has been hailed as one of Britain’s biggest sporting events of 2013.

Partners are still determined to press ahead at Pow Beck regardless of dropping negotiations with the Whitehaven Miners’ Welfare – they aim to find another access route in. All highly embarrassing, if not a shambles, considering all the hype and cost so far.

The champagne that flowed at the first World Cup announcement at Copeland Stadium looks pretty flat stuff now.

And come to mention it – isn’t Copeland Stadium the place where a fair few folk, myself included, considered might have been a more sensible place to put a combined rugby/soccer stadium in the first place?

Even though the partners are fixed on making something work at Pow Beck, there is sense in taking a serious look at what might be possible up the hill at Hensingham; certainly a lot less hassle over land you’d think.

On the brighter side for Whitehaven RL, ‘Rooney signs for Haven’ was an intriguing headline. Not the one and only, of course, but a certain Jamie Rooney who, at the age of 31, is still a pretty decent rugby league footballer.

And at a time when Whitehaven have been crying out for a class act to orchestrate a faltering promotion challenge, this is certainly a man with the right credentials. It could prove not only a renaissance for Rooney but for Whitehaven in a bid to move up Championship One as quickly as they can.

On the face of it, this is a smart and timely capture. Or as head coach Don Gailer says: “The right one at the right time.”

Especially so after the move to bring stand-off Glen Nami all the way from Papua New Guinea so disappointingly fell through.

Rooney will travel from Featherstone and, when I spoke to him this week, he could not have been more delighted or enthusiastic to join Haven’s band of travellers.

Rooney has always been an accomplished footballer having plied his trade in Super League with Wakefield Wildcats with the distinction of representing his country in an England jersey.

And last season he did a pretty useful job for Barrow, giving a new dimension and spark to their midfield play. Which is exactly what Whitehaven expect of him and what he is determined to provide.

Despite past achievements, Rooney reckons he has a point or two to prove. With reference to his departures from Barrow and more recently the South Wales scene, he told me: “A few off-the-field personal problems have distracted me but now they’ve been sorted. I want to enjoy my rugby again – with a smile on my face.”

A rugby craftsmen with either ball in hand or boot to foot, Rooney knows the score. Whitehaven are giving him the chance to resurrect his career. Provided he can provide the play-making skills to win one of those four vital promotion places then there is every chance he will still be here next year to play in the Championship.

Whether he figures at stand-off or scrum-half is probably immaterial. Carl Rudd in the No 6 shirt has had plenty of big wraps from Gailer but clearly the Aussie, like the rest of us, feels that something has been missing.

And it doesn’t take a Johnathan Thurston to tell you that Haven have sorely lacked the missing ingredients since those half-back maestros Leroy Joe and Tane Manihera hung up their Recre boots and took their special brand of Kiwi guile with them.

Such was the situation last weekend in Rudd’s enforced absence that Carl Sice found himself donning the No 6 shirt against South Wales Scorpions on Sunday.

He’s no stranger to a bit of midfield magic himself but it’s usually coming off the subs bench as replacement hooker. But who else but the mercurial Sicey could come up with a hat-trick of tries?

Young Ben Karalius responded well after being dropped the previous week and, all in all, Gailer said it was a shot in the arm for the team that was sensational in the 34-0 win.

Jessie Joe Parker also found himself switched from centre to full-back. Andreas Bauer was unfit and Shane Ackerley is off to Gateshead on loan – not everyone agrees with that decision – but personally I can’t wait to see Rooney coming up with the plays to bring the best out of the PNG Test star.

If in the next few weeks, Haven can get things sorted out up front with the capture of a Test prop (also from PNG) then, with any luck, Rooney will add the missing midfield magic and we’ll see a much more harmonious Haven.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk