Two years ago Whitehaven shocked Dewsbury 25-18 in the Challenge Cup at the Recreation Ground.

That was quite a performance by a League One side over Championship opposition but when they face-off this Sunday they will both be competing on the same second tier level.

The Rams have only played once so far when they lost 36-10 at home to Leigh Centurions in the opening game of the season.

Since then their trip to Swinton was postponed and Sunday’s visit to Halifax suffered the same fate.

But they will get some more action before travelling to west Cumbria as the trip to Halifax has been rescheduled for tonight.

When Whitehaven try to get their season on track with a Challenge Cup success on Sunday, they will only have eight of the players who were involved in that cup shock two years ago.

Dan Abram, who returned to torment Whitehaven on Sunday, scoring most of Oldham’s points in their 16-14 victory, was at full-back.

Jordan Burns, who kicked four goals in the Cup victory, is still on Haven’s books but has been playing rugby union for St. Benedict’s.

Only skipper Marc Shackley and Ellis Gillam remain of the forwards, along with Kris Coward who started on the bench that afternoon.

James Tilley, Carl Forster, Liam Cooper and Stuart Howarth have all moved on.

Two of the substitutes - Brad Billsborough and Lewis Brown - have all left while the fourth, Connor Holliday is still waiting to make his first competitive start, after suffering a hamstring pull in the first friendly of the season at Newcastle Thunder.

Jessie Joe Parker (2), Jason Mossop and Forster scored the Whitehaven tries while Howarth added a field goal, in that famous 2018 win.

Head coach Gary Charlton said: “At the moment we’d take any sort of win to get us going.

"I thought we’d made good progress at London after the Swinton defeat, but it’s been a case of two steps forward and three back.

“We keep saying that we are looking for improvement, however small, from match to match but we didn’t get that on Sunday.

“The players knew they had let themselves down but they have to start cutting out the mistakes they made against Swinton and Oldham, and find a bit more craft to ask searching questions when we have the ball.”

Dewsbury in the Challenge Cup is the second of three successive home matches at the Recreation Ground for Charlton and his men, as they host unbeaten Toulouse Olympique on March 1.

They will not want to remain winless by the end of those games.