WHITEHAVEN RL has faced a harsh defeat against Halifax Panthers. 

The West Cumbrian side took on the Yorkshire outfit on Sunday, February 11, in the Challenge Cup. 

Whitehaven came away with a 32-4 defeat at The Shay Stadium knocking them out of the cup for the season ahead. 

Head coach, spoke to media officer Jordan Weir, he said: "They were right out the blocks Halifax today and we didn't stay with them. 

"By 20 minutes in it was 22-0 and it was game done, but that's what Championship teams do to you when you're not on your game from the word 'go.'

"It's something that we talked about at half-time and I feel that we got a bit better around 25 minutes in. We talked about it, what we needed to do, we needed to match them regarding speed with or without the ball and we sort of did that in the second half. 

"Our edges coped with what was coming at them, because it was off slow play, they didn't break us down whereas in the first half they were breaking us all over the place. 

"We were just chasing our tails, they did a really good job at getting out the blocks early at us. 

"I was happy with how it went in the second half because it could have gone either way, but we were positive in the changing rooms at halftime, and we did what we said we were going to do in the second half. 

"Until there was a sin bin late on it was 0-0 for 30 minutes and that's what you've got to do with teams in the Championship, you can't give them that fast play."

He continued: "I just reiterated what we talked about on Tuesday night at training, what we talked about on Saturday morning at training, and what we talked about before the game. 

"I didn't give them loads of objectives to do, all we wanted was to defend better, be more energetic, and finish our sets well. 

"I still don't think we finished our sets well and in good ball, but we did put our defence right in that second half."