Whitehaven take victory in Furness's season-opener

FURNESS kicked off the Cumbria League season with defeat to relegated Whitehaven in a hard-fought encounter at the Strawberry Grounds.

There was nothing to choose between the sides in the opening 20 minutes, with defences very much on top and Joe Mallinson, Arron Pike and Paul Dean making their presence felt for the home team.

The deadlock was eventually broken when a speculative kick downfield from Whitehaven led to them being awarded a penalty, which they duly kicked to go three points up.

At the other end, Alex Brown was halted just short and, when the ball was ripped away at a maul, the Blues were able to counter and run in an unconverted try out wide.

Despite the Furness pack having the edge over Whitehaven's front eight, the hosts were again outdone by the pace of their opponents on 35 minutes when a weak kick was returned for a second try, with another penalty and a third try following as Furness were punished for some errors.

A successful penalty for the hosts meant they went in 23-3 down at half-time.

The introduction of Steve Perry at fly-half added some more fluency to their attacks, while more strong work up front on the back of Corne Els' efforts took them deep into Whitehaven territory.

However, the ball was spilled in the back and Whitehaven duly took advantage with another swift counter-attack, sealing the bonus point with their fourth try of the game, which was also converted.

Furness were quick to respond and a break by Tez Nueto set up Mike Backhouse to power through the defence, earning a penalty try for the home side when he was felled on the line by a high tackle, with Perry kicking the extras from in front of the posts.

Nueto was involved again soon after to put Ben Hughes through and, although he was stopped, Mallinson freed up the ball at the resulting ruck and picked out Blues man-of-the-match Els, who dived over from two metres, with Perry again converting.

Hughes then managed to get over from close range for an unconverted score, but a yellow card to Backhouse for a high tackle left Furness down to 14 for the rest of the game, with Whitehaven kicking the resulting penalty and running in a converted try late on to seal the win.