By Martin Morgan

Published at 11:31, Thursday, 27 August 2009

WHITEHAVEN’S Championship rivals could be on a Fox hunt next season – due to a couple of the club’s top young prospects.

Scorer: Jamie Martin

The reserve-grade campaign ended at the weekend, and team manager Dave Farrell has been impressed with the impact of Stephen Fox and namesake Reece, also a centre/back-rower.

“Stephen Fox has played every game this season except one and scored 14 tries, that’s almost one a game,” Farrell said.

“He’s played well at centre and in the pack, and shown steady improvement. The lad can’t do any more than that.

“Reece Fox has come in and made a really big impact, and if he can build on that start, he’s obviously got a big future in the professional game. Nicky Cook has also come in this year, going from the Cumberland League to the professional game, and looked very assured whether at full-back or on the wing. And Mark Watson at hooker has also shown himself to be a capable footballer.”

The reserve-grade suffered a final day disappointment losing to visitors Widnes 42-12.

The hosts possibly paid the price for agreeing an early, lunch-time kick-off at the Recre, to allow the Vikings the chance to get back to Halton Stadium in time to see their first-team face Haven, as it meant experienced duo Carl Sice and John Lebbon were unavailable due to work commitments.

“They could and would have made a difference,” said Farrell. “Our willingness to help Widnes didn’t do us any favours.

“We also lost a few players to the first-team, which didn’t help our cause. When we made mistakes our concentration dropped and we were punished by Widnes, who scored seven tries.

“If we’d won the game we’d have finished third this season, which would have been highly satisfactory.

“We ended up sixth, which doesn’t look quite as good, but it shouldn’t detract from the fact that we played some good rugby this season, and probably more positives than negatives came out of it.”

Tyrone Dalton and Jamie Martin crossed for the hosts. Leigh finished as champs, six points ahead of Haven.

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk