Whitehaven head coach James Coyle today said he was pleased with the reaction he got from his players after Monday’s 30-16 defeat to Hunslet.

The result was just Haven’s second loss in five games and Coyle was forced to make a number of changes to his side for the Bank Holiday fixture.

The club also confirmed that winger Jordan Burns has fractured his eye socket and cheek bone and will see a specialist today to find out the full extent of his injury.

“We have to get over the result on Monday,” Coyle said.

“We can’t brush it under the carpet but we need to put it to bed, realise what went wrong and improve on that.

“A few players held their hands up after the game.

apologised

“Grant Gore apologised for his performance and it takes a big bloke to do that in front of the team.

“He understands he didn’t play as well as he could and we had a lot of people in different positions.

“The amount of changes during the game we made to accommodate the players we had available was massive.

“Jessie Joe Parker had to play in the back-row and Dion Aiye was in there for most of the game.

“Thomas [Coyle] hadn’t trained since he played last weekend against Dewsbury because he got married last week and cancelled his trip away to play on Monday.

“He was outstanding against Dewsbury but this week his timing and his passing was a bit off because we moved him to half-back. His passing wasn’t as sharp because it’s a different style of pass with people running at different speeds.

“Jordan Burns finished the last 20 minutes with a broken jaw and Jessie Joe Parker played with a medial ligament tear.”