Over the weekend Whitehaven RL faced off against Newcastle Thunder away losing the match 40-24.

The team put on a great performance early on in the game but began to fall into rut as the game progressed, putting Newcastle Thunder into the lead.

We have spoken with Whitehaven RL Head Coach Jonty Gorley to hear his thoughts on the match and his plans for the team in the Challenge Cup match this weekend.

Mr Gorley said: "We were in total control for twenty minutes then made one error and we didn't get the ball back for quite some time. Over the next seventeen minutes we only managed to get the ball back for one set which lasted 37 seconds. In a game like that when you're playing against a decent side, if you haven't got the ball for not even a minute it's going to take it's toll.

"Which did happen as Newcastle Thunder played really well at the end of the first half and they got four tries in that period. But luckily we still went into half time in the lead which I found quite bizarre with how much we'd done. I think this took a lot of energy out of us in the second half and our defence wasn't great which resulted in them winning it.

"Going away from home and scoring 24 points should have set us up well to win but it was disappointing for us to have conceded 40 points."

Whitehaven will next be playing in the Challenge Cup on Sunday, February 27 against Doncaster RLFC. The game will be played away at the Eco Power Stadium at 2pm.

Jonty explained that their are a few people on the team who have not played a lot of minutes as of yet so he wants to give them some time out on the field. He says that as of yet he hasn't finalised his squad but there will be some players in the game who have not been played in recent matches.

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