» December 3rd 2000
» Workington Town 18 Rochdale Hornets 8

Workington opened the season with a deserved, but hard fought victory. The defensive effort by the team was nearly faultless.

All the forwards took their turn at driving in with the ball, especially Matt Strum who earned the sponsor's man of the match award as well as the player's man of the match award.

Workington soaked up early pressure from the visitors and broke the deadlock on 8 minutes when Manihera fed Sice, who saw a gap and ran the diagonal and passed to the charging Sturm who powered over for the first try. Hetherington added the conversion to make the score 6 - 0 to Town.

Hetherington then added two penalties to extend the score to 10 - 0.

Rochdale replied before the break with a penalty for off-side, to make the score at half-time 10 - 2 to Town.

The second half again saw Town soaking up all the early pressure, but again the defensive line stood firm.

Town opened the second half scoring on 59 minutes when Manihera ran the ball on last tackle and fed Lewthwaite who kicked through and then raced on to collect the ball in the Rochdale in goal area, beating the defence to touch down. Hetherington missed the conversion from wide on the left.

Leigh Smith powered over on 70 minutes to extend the Town lead to 18 - 2. Hetherington hit the post with the conversion attempt.

Town's line was breached in the dying minutes when Danny Sculthorpe dived in from the play of the ball on the Town line. The added conversion bringing the final score to 18 - 8 to Town.