Bring on the big guns was the battle cry from Whitehaven as they powered into the sixth round of the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup, disposing of Rochdale Hornets.
Haven nilled their higher-league opponents in an outstanding display to win the tie 38-0 and earn their place in Wednesday’s draw, to be held live on The Chris Evans Breakfast show on BBC Radio 2.
With the top eight Super League sides joining the fray, Haven player-coach Carl Forster is hoping for a tasty tie against one of the big guns to pull in the crowds.
It would be nice to get the big tie, a Super League club, away or at home,” said Forster after yesterday’s win.
As a club, we need that big tie, a club with a big following to get a crowd and, hopefully, that’s the reward we get for knocking two Championship sides out.”
Forster admitted that the performance was more than he could have hoped for as Rochdale were put to the sword.
“I’m just elated, we didn’t expect that this morning but it was just about time we put an 80-minute performance in,” he added.
“I thought, if we were going to need an 80-minute performance, it was probably today against a Championship side. It was nice to nil someone.
"We’ve been talking about it for weeks and we should have done it last week.”
The side’s defence came in for real praise, as they held their visitors out, despite being down to 12 men on two separate occasions.
Forster said: “I think our defence has been magnificent all year, apart from Doncaster away.
"I don’t think we have conceded many points and it’s something we pride ourselves on and we’ve been trying to fine tune our attack in recent weeks. That’s our benchmark.
"We try to get 16 points a game on average, and to nil a Championship side shows our desire. It wasn’t all pretty defending, just everyone defending for each other, getting off our line and trying to shut them down.
"It was just the desire that got us through the 10 minute stints when we had men in the sin-bin.
“We just wanted it more than them today. We turned up with the right attitude and whether they underestimated us a little bit I’m not sure.
Now, we are going to enjoy the win and review it and dust ourselves off, not get carried away as we are back to reality this week and back to League One action against Keighley.”
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/sport/whitehaven-rl/latest/article/Carl-Forster-targeting-Super-League-opposition-in-the-Ladbrokes-Challenge-Cup-after-win-over-Rochdale-Hornets-f1ba3761-e7ad-4029-b6ed-e8b39596cd95-ds