Last updated 15:57, Wednesday, 14 May 2008

IT was enough to make you go weak at the knees. I certainly did.

Haven’s nightmarish performance at Wigan on Monday evening will play on the mind for some time to come. However one tried to drown the sorrows in the swanky social surroundings of the JJB Stadium, the club’s record 106-8 defeat was always going to be a sobering thought.

I was a guest of main match sponsor Nuclear Management Partners, including Haven’s main backer Washington, and it’s fair to say it was all taken pretty philosophically. Which was the only way.

Someone asked me: “Is this the blackest moment in the history of Whitehaven rugby league?”

Maybe the mind-numbing effects hadn’t yet settled in while Wigan’s hospitality executives did try their best to ease the pain by serving generous amounts of fine wine, but at the time, it didn’t seem to be the worst.

Some of us had the feeling that it could have happened to anyone in National League One – well almost. I’ve seen Haven play worse against lesser opposition, so it’s all relative!

I blame The Saints for it all. The fact that St Helens put nearly 70 points on their deadly rivals at the Cardiff Millennium Stadium the week before heaped shame, embarrassment and downright humiliation on the cherry and whites.

Something had to be done to repair pride and reputations. Poor injury-hit Haven were the whipping boys.

Sean O’Loughlin, Wigan’s captain, apologised in the match programme.

But we had an inkling something worse was to come when the club’s academy coach, the ex-Town and Wigan prop Shaun Wayne, told the grandees of the executive lounge that “Nobby” (Brian Noble) had one message for his beleaguered boys: “Treat Whitehaven just like you would Leeds, Bradford – or Saints.” Adding ominously that they’d trained like world beaters all week.

Chief executive Joe Lydon and Nobby joined the programme chorus, the latter saying: “You, the fans, deserve a lot better. The plan is to put it right and as soon as possible. That has involved plenty of straight talking and a lot of hard work in training over the past seven days or so.”

Maybe Haven’s travelling fans deserved better, too. As it was, vengeful Wigan showed Haven no mercy from first minute ‘till last.

But surely they wouldn’t want to rack up the century? How wrong can you be. A gentleman called Paleaaesina, for one, had other ideas. The giant Kiwi kept coming back on the field to such shattering effect that he was swatting off Ryan McDonald like the proverbial fly.

It was as though Wigan were playing rugby from another planet with Haven defenceless earthlings. It wasn’t just physical, but pace, precision and panache, as though a dam had burst as Barrett and Co. came flooding relentlessly through the gaps.

Haven looked lost from the moment they took the field. There was no big crowd – a paltry 3,814 was a reaction to the Saints torment – but with oceans of space opening up on a seemingly wider pitch, top class Super League players running at them from all angles, Haven never seemed to re-adjust to their new dimensions.

“We did what we had to do. We were devastated by what happened against St Helens, so we needed to show what we could do,” said Sam Tomkins.

I had the privilege, on behalf of the nuclear sponsors, to choose the man-of-the-match and to name Tomkins was, in no way, difficult despite Barrett’s own hat-trick and Pat Richards weighing in with 17 goals and a try.

Five tries and as many assists, including the quickest hat-trick on record, made it a glorious first team debut for Tomkins, the boy who could well become the next Sean Long. He’s that good but he wouldn’t even have played but for the fact that Thomas Leuluai was rested.

It wasn’t even Wigan’s biggest win. That was 116-0, also against West Cumbrian opposition in the amateurs of Flimby and Fothergill in 1925, which is still a record in the Challenge Cup.

For Wigan, it wasn’t about beating Whitehaven by as many points as they wished, but more to do with obliterating the memory of their own shame. Any cannon fodder would do.

Believe it or not, Haven, fielding academy kids of their own, showed great courage, and the Wigan faithful generously applauded as Haven trouped off with heads held high.

It was a bitter-sweet taste of how the other half live but things to dream about in the proposed Recre regeneration.

What’s needed now is for Haven, probably minus the injured Carl Rudd but hopefully with Tane Manihera and Martin Gambles (dubbed the poor man’s Rob Burrow!), bouncing back with the same merciless reaction as Wigan did.

So look out Batley on Sunday!