Bears punished by ruthless ‘Haven

COVENTRY BEARS 12 WHITEHAVEN 44

Mike Hyde, Butts Park arena, Sunday

Whitehaven braved early Bears pressure to run out comfortable winners with a strong performance that signalled their intent for the season.

Coventry Bears started well and soon had Haven under pressure, but it was Whitehaven, on their first foray into the Bears half who broke the deadlock thanks to a Daniel Abram offloading the ball as he was tackled to put Dion Aiye over under the sticks.

Undaunted by the setback, the Bears were soon back on the  attack, virtually camping in Haven’s ten yard line but the away sides defence saw of set after set of pressure lasting a good twenty minutes, as Coventry tried grubber kicks, high ball, strong drives and passes out to the wings in order to get onto the scoresheet.

Having defended well, Haven found themselves in the Bears half once more, and again took full advantage as Danny Green plucked a short kick out of the air to score on the far right and Abram gained two further points from a difficult conversion. All the Bears’ efforts had been in vain.

There then followed a rather scrappy spell with both sides seemingly unable to keep the ball for a full set. Haven were growing in confidence and were held up under the posts on one attack while the same happened to Coventry at the other end.

It was an attack from fifty yards out following a scrum which added to Haven’s points total as Abram sprinted forty yards to put the ball under the posts, after which he calmly took the easy conversion.

The second half began with the Bears still determined to make an impression, and a long pass from Chris Vitallini put Harry Chapman over, and Paul Emanuelli added the two.

Rattled by this, Whitehaven were quick to reply as a flowing move initiated by Carl Foster saw Jason Mossop cross over.

Foster then put himself on the scoresheet just three minutes later as Haven grew in stature.

A loss of possession by Coventry saw another move featuring Foster and this time Abrahams was both try scorer and converter.

Jessie Joe Parker also got in on the action, creating and then finishing the attack with a try.

Coventry seemed out of the game, but Chapman intercepted a pass that looked like another Haven try was on the cards. He then ran the entire length of the field to make the score more respectable for the home side at 12-38.

But this was Whitehaven’s day as Forster crashed over for another try, to round off a comprehensive victory.

MATCHFACTS

BEARS

  1 Alex Beddows

  1 Jason Bass 

  2 Harry Chapman   

  3 Kam Pearce-Paul

  4 Dante Morley-Samuels

  5 Hayden Freeman

  6 Paul Emanuelli

  7 Liam Rice Wilson

  8 James Guertjens

  9 Zak Williams

10 Alex Beddows

11 Ben Gray

12 James Mason

13 Chris Vitalini

Subs (all used)

14 Lewis Lord

15 Harry Kaufman [16]

16 John Aldred [18]

17 JoelThomas

Tries: Chapman (47,69)

Goals: Emanuelli  2/2

HAVEN

  1 Daniel Abram

  2 Dave Thompson [5]

  3 Jason Mossop [23]

  4 Christopher Taylor [3]

  5 Danny Green [15]

  6 Stuart Howarth [22]

  7 Dion Aiye [6]

  8 Marc Shackley

  9 James Tilley

10 Kris Coward

11 Connor Holliday

12 Ellis Gillam [18]

13 Carl Foster [10]

Subs (all used)

14 Lewis Brown [19]

25 Liam Cooper[27]

16 Josh Evans [26]

17 Jessie Joe Parker [4]

Tries: Aiye [7] Green [23] Abram [36,63] Mossop [53] Foster [57,72] Parker [65]

Goals: Abram 6/8

Penalty count: 7-7

Half-time: 0-18

Referee:  A Sweet

Attendance: 279

SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 0-12 0-18;   6-18, 6-22, 6-28, 6-34 ,6-38,12-38,12-44