Whether or not Haven player-coach Carl Forster had invited the former Great Britain half-back to impart any words of wisdom on the current squad will never be known, but what is for certain is Forster found a way to do what few others had managed to do so far this year and beat Barrow Raiders.
Paul Crarey and his men were in confident mood heading into this clash – and who could blame them following an impressive season in both Kingstone Press League One and the cups. Indeed, only full-time divisional rivals Toronto Wolfpack and Super League giants Leeds Rhinos had been able to overcome them.
Until yesterday, that was. For when the full-time hooter sounded it was the West Cumbrian hosts who were celebrating a deserved 32-6 victory which not only earned them the county bragging rights, but also secured second place and a two-point advantage over the Raiders heading into the Super Eights.
What was most surprising, from a Barrow point of view at least, was that the defeat came on the back of a very un-Raiders-like performance. Haven were able to exploit gaps in the defence for tries, while the visitors bombed several chances they would otherwise be expected to take.
Discipline also proved problematic for them too – the result being that three of the five players sent to the sin bin by referee Jonathan Roberts were from the away side, with the yellows for Danny Morrow and Jamie Dallimore coming in the closing stages when tempers started to fray.
The first came after just nine minutes when skipper Ollie Wilkes suffered an uncharacteristic rush of blood to the head and flew out of the line to hit Forster late, gifting Whitehaven a temporary numerical advantage.
The home side duly made the most of that just a minute later, stretching the Barrow defence to send winger David Thompson over in the corner for an unconverted try which added to the penalty Paul Crook had slotted over for them three minutes in.
Despite the return of senior quartet Ryan Fieldhouse, Declan Hulme, Nathan Mossop and Martin Aspinwall to the starting 13, Barrow struggled to get to grips with Haven, who pushed further in front in the 16th minute when Glenn Riley bashed his way through for a converted score after powerful Papua New Guinea international Jessie Joe Parker had been stopped just short.
Restored to their full complement, the Raiders did start to get a foothold in the match and when a knock-on by Whitehaven 20 metres from their line gave the away side a scrum, they duly made the most of it as Tom Walker drove and then twisted over to dot down, followed by Lewis Charnock converting.
That would prove to be all they had to celebrate on the day, though, and even when it was their turn to have a man advantage after James Newton was sin-binned for an altercation in back-play, they were unable to turn the screw.
Even when Barrow did find a way over the try-line through Shane Toal, they were to be denied by Mr Roberts pulling play back for a forward pass – and instead Whitehaven edged closer to victory when a man down after scrum-half Crook landed a penalty from 45 metres out.
The writing was on the wall for Barrow within minutes of Haven being back to 13 as rampaging stand-off Dion Aiye burst through a gap in the defence for a converted try on 62 minutes, with further converted scores from Steven Roper and Scott McAvoy sealing the victory.
The game ended on a sour note though; both Morrow and Chris Taylor were shown yellow cards for fighting, while a high shot from Dallimore saw him receive the same punishment just before the end.
Barrow at least have the chance to recuperate and regather with a week off before the Super Eights get under way. No doubt head coach Crarey will be working hard with his player in that time to ensure such a result does not occur again this season.
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