Whitehaven put in an excellent performance against League One leaders Toronto Wolfpack but faded in the final quarter when they conceded three tries against the full-timers.

The away side looked to be in trouble after falling behind to a pair of converted tries just 14 minutes into the match, both scored by the Wolfpack’s Richard Whiting.

However, the visitors responded well. A spiralling kick from Jordan Burns resulted in a Wolfpack knock on, and a spell of possession for the visitors.

Burns came up big again on 20 minutes when he tackled a charging Liam Kay into touch to prevent another Wolfpack try.

Whitehaven again pressed the issue on 30 minutes when Dion Aiye found player-coach Carl Forster, who was judged to have knocked the ball on.

Forster redeemed himself two minutes later when he dived over the try line to cut the score to 12-6 Toronto. Burns converted.

Toronto quickly replied, with Bob Beswick bursting through the Whitehaven line and touching down on 33 minutes to extend the Wolfpack lead to 16-6. That remained the score when the half-time hooter sounded.

The early part of the second half saw Whitehaven enjoy their best spell of the match.

On 46 minutes, Aiye played a dangerous grubber kick into the path of Craig Calvert that Johnny Pownall was forced to swat into touch.

Whitehaven moved the ball quickly to James Newton, who touched down under the posts, Burns adding the extras for 16-12.

Toronto matched Whitehaven’s effort with a try of their own in short order.

The next Wolfpack set saw the ball worked to Pownall who drove to touch down in the corner.

Haven again worked the ball into the Toronto end of the field before James Tilley burrowed his way through Toronto defenders and over the line, Burns again adding the conversion.

On 63 minutes, the Wolfpack finally started to find cracks in a tired Whitehaven side who had held up well.

Kay took a pass from Gary Wheeler and barged his way into the corner to touch down.

Toronto scored twice more in the next nine minutes with Wheeler and Quentin Laulu-Togaga’e adding tries to bring the score to 36-18.