Published at 15:59, Wednesday, 11 June 2008

THINGS in the Recre garden are starting to look a lot rosier – both on and off the field.

If anything could top last Sunday’s sunshine performance which totally eclipsed Featherstone Rovers then it is the long-awaited news that Whitehaven RLFC has finally landed a new 50-year term lease on the Recreation Ground.

And after all the financial troubles of late, it must seem like the end of the proverbial rainbow, a crock of gold in terms of securing Haven’s long term future.

Basically, without this level of security, there would be no future to speak of, not at The Recre at any rate. So the deal with Whitehaven Miners Welfare is virtually a Holy Grail.

It effectively triggers the necessary investment from the regeneration movers and shakers to kick start the Pow Beck scheme which means that money will be made available to bring the ground up to the standard expected in this day and age.

The target is to bring the ground up to the minimum standards required for Super League, another Holy Grail!

You could say that if Haven do eventually get the chance to play in Super League it will be at the Recre, so ending any speculation that without the investment they might fancy a move to the Copeland Stadium of sporting excellence or to any neutral venue which might have facilitated a joint Super League franchise venture.

Priority at the Recre in RL terms is that 1,000-seater grandstand but the club’s regeneration and local authority partners will have other projects in mind as part of the overall sports village concept planned for that part of town.

Messrs Grace and Graham have played a blinder and so did the team down at the Recre on Sunday when it was rugby league for the purist.

Haven produced one of the most scintillating attacking displays seen from them for a long time – almost as though the players had been let off a leash to play fluid, free flowing football.

The Salford triumph brought a few hundred back through the turnstiles and the near 2,000 crowd basked in the sunshine of an exhilarating performance. Rich dividends, the stuff people pay to see.

No putting their foot in it this time, just Rovers being ran well and truly off their feet.

Ged Stokes’ coaching stock is rising and his ambition has to be the same as his team and most certainly as the directors – that’s a play-off place.

It would have been nice to keep the momentum going this weekend but the next match is not until Sunday week, a very important visit to take on Halifax at The Shay.

But it gives breathing space for Haven to clear the casualty ward. The youngsters have added a breath of fresh air but it seems certain that Stokes will change a winning team to recall any fit again senior players for the experience he felt they lacked at times on Sunday.

While it seems perverse to say so, the temporary loss of Leroy, Fats, Sice and Rudd has proved a blessing in disguise. Mr Stokes now knows that he does have credit in the selection bank.

And notably he’s certainly hit the money ball with Tane Manihera and Gregg McNally.

McNally, 17, wouldn’t have got his chance at scrum-half but for the transfer of John Duffy to Widnes, while Manihera wouldn’t even have been signed but for the injury crisis.

I suspect that, like Martin Gambles, the veteran Kiwi was brought in mainly for cover but try and shift him now!

It’s like the Sorcerer and his apprentice.

Schoolboy McNally has captured most of the headlines, and rightly so, but a good scrum-half needs a good stand-off and, in testing conditions against Salford and Featherstone, Tane proved that he was still a master craftsman.

And if McNally is still a work-in-progress then he is making some phenomenal progress.

No, Gregg didn’t bag another hat-trick, nor could he have been expected to, but he was exceptional enough. Every time he got the ball there was that special buzz of expectancy and the special try he created for Spencer Miller had class written all over it.

On this form, like his elder statesmen partner, the teenage prodigy is here to stay, but the crucial question is for how long.

Will he go to Leeds in July in the “loan” deal that was agreed before the lad got hold of Whitehaven’s first team jersey?

Everyone at the Recre hopes Gregg will change his mind and consider that playing in Haven’s first team and continuing to capture attention is preferable to a month’s trial in the Academy side at Headingley.

The Whitehaven School sixth former has a contract with Haven until November 29 and the club has made it clear it will not ‘stand in his way’ after that if he decided he did want pastures new.

Naturally enough, Stokes told me he would love the boy to stay, as do the directors and all the fans, and Ged says that his fellow Kiwi pal Bluey – Leeds boss Brian McLelland – agrees that Gregg would probably be better off building his experience playing first team rugby.

But that doesn’t settle it – the final decision is down to Gregg himself.

One supporter said earnestly after Sunday’s game: “I hope he doesn’t go”. And so say all of us!

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