FOUR tries in the first half secured Hunslet’s first victory at Whitehaven since 2015, with a late try from Billy Jowitt at the end of the first half securing a massive four score advantage, which the home side never looked in danger of pulling back.
The first try came in the opening set, which became the pattern for the opening 40 minutes as Harrison Gilmore broke down the left to find centre Myles Harrop, throwing a dummy before stepping inside of Whitehaven’s full back Cole Walker-Taylor to ground the ball underneath the sticks, ensuring a simple conversion for Billy Jowitt to slot over from the middle of the posts.
Harrop turned from scorer to assister in the 10th minute, the centre receiving the ball on the end of a shift play, spreading the ball from the right-hand edge to the left before a curling run allowed him to outpace Haven captain Jordan Burns to break down the left.
The centre was then able to sidestep Walker-Taylor before perfectly timing the offload, finding Jimmy Watson before a tackle from Dave Eccleston, with Watson grounding underneath the sticks for his third try of the campaign. Jowitt once again converted from directly in front of the posts.
The breaks leading to tries continued as Isaac Misky was able to take advantage of the space left by an off-the-ball collision between Harvey Hallas and Connor Holliday to dart through the middle of the field before being able to saunter past a slipping Walker-Taylor to ground the ball despite the best efforts of retreating Mitchell Todd to once aground the cross the whitewash under the sticks and allow a third conversion from right in front for Billy Jowitt.
The final score of the first half came just three minutes from the end of the half as a Charlie Graham offload allowed half-back Jack Ward to escape the defence down the right-hand side edge to cross for his first of the campaign. Billy Jowitt converted the score for a 24-point lead.
The second half was a much more even contest with the home side reducing the deficit twice in the third quarter.
Ciaran Walker has started to become more instrumental for the Cumbrians in recent weeks with his kicking game and try scoring but this time it was his running close to the line that allowed him to cruise over the try line for his fourth of the campaign, taking advantage of a slip in defence from opposite number Lee Gaskell.
The former Workington half-back couldn’t add the extras close to the touchline as his attempt fell to the side of the near left-hand post.
The arrears were further reduced before the hour, once again in part to the running game of Walker.
The half-back eluded the defensive effort of the visitors on the final tackle before throwing the ball over the top, finding Seth Woodend to saunter over the whitewash untouched. Walker’s conversion attempt was successful.
The story for the Cumbrians after that was one of missed opportunities with Whitehaven bemoaning the decision to pull Jackson Smith back after a attempted one-on-one strip from Harvey Hallas came off the foot of the forward who then collected the kicked ball forward to ground the ball before a decision was made to award the scrum to Haven 40 metres out before a fingertip touch on a looping Ciaran Walker stopped a walk in try for Seth Woodend.
The final score of the game fell to the visitors, with Isaac Misky diving out of dummy half and underneath the attempted tackle to score his second of the campaign, ensuring no late comeback was on the cards.
Dan Abram assumed the kicking duties in the absence of Billy Jowitt, slotting over for the two points on offer.
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