» April 13th 2001
» Town 18 : 38 Whitehaven

Town lost this game in the first 40 minutes. Although recently we have seen them pull back from being behind against Hull KR, once they went down 24 - 0 there was a mountain to climb in the second half.

Haven seemed to be more up for this match and deserved this derby win. Town did come back at Haven in the first 20 minutes of the second half, but Haven regained the advantage and ran in 3 tries in the last 20 minutes.

Howard Hill put haven in front after 6 minutes. From the scrum deep in the Town half Leroy Joe passed to Hill who strode through the weak Town defence to score under the posts. Kirkbride added the conversion.

Haven extended their lead on 16 minutes. Jonathan Wignall intercepted a Tane Manihera pass and sprinted clear of the Town defence. He ran at and then around Lynton Stott before Jamie Beaumont caught him. The ball was carried deeper into the Town half by the Haven forwards before Leroy Joe again provided Hill with the scoring chance. Again Hill blasted through the weal Town tackles to score. Kirkbride again successful with the kick to put Haven into a 12 - 0 lead.

Spencer Miller added two tries to further extend the Haven lead. The first after 20 minutes when he slid into score despite the attentions of Jamie Beaumont who tried to hold him out. His second after 35 minutes after Leroy Joe again providing the final pass. Kirkbride kicking both conversions to give Haven a 24 - 0 halftime lead.

Gary Murdock must have had strong word with his players during the halftime break, and it seemed to work. Town came out firing on all cylinders and scored two tries in the opening 9 minutes of the second half.

In the first minute of the second Town ran the ball out of their own half. Anthony Samuel pulled in the defence and released Graeme Lewthwaite who split the defence and sprinted clear before he was caught by the fullback. Lewthwaite held off the challenge and passed to the supporting Leigh Smith who went in unopposed to score. Tane Manihera adding the conversion.

Owen Williamson scored the second in the 49th minute after good Town defence had forced Haven into handling errors in their own half. He took the ball from close to the Haven line and twisted in the tackle and sneaked the ball over the line to score. Tane Manihera again successful with the conversion to reduce the Haven lead to 24 - 12.

Town continued to press during the next 11 minutes but were unable to gain any further scores despite enjoying the better of the possession.

It was Haven who would score the next points. Good handling saw the ball swung along the line, the ball came to Hill and when the gap opened he ran in to complete his hat-trick. Kirkbride missed with the conversion attempt.

With the score at 28 - 12 Haven were back in the driving seat and when they made the break through Robert Purdham. When the ball came to Lee Kiddie he placed a nicely weight kick through the Town defence into the in-goal area. Paul O'Neil was first to the loose ball to score. Kirkbride kicked the conversion to extend their lead to 34 - 12.

Town responded well and on 70 minutes Lynton Stott pounced onto a loose ball inside his own half after a handling error from Lee Kiddie. Stott picked up the ball, ran at the defensive line and split the Haven defence and sprinted 50 metres to score. Tane Manihera again on target with the kick.

Haven scored a late try to give them a bigger winning margin. Aaron Lester running in from 30 Metres out He was able to run down the touchline to score in the corner. Kirkbride missing with the touchline conversion attempt to make the final score 38 -18.

Town:-
Lynton Stott, Jonathan Heaney, Neil Frazer, Leigh Smith, Graeme Lewthwaite, Tane Manihera, Lee Allen, Matt Sturm, Owen Williamson, Hitro Okesene, Jamie Beaumont, Anthony Samuel, Kevin Hetherington.
Subs: Craig Rumney, Matthew Tunstall, Lokeni Savelio, Fata Sini.

Referee: Julian King

Attendance: 1,785