It is all square at the break in the West Cumbrian derby with nothing to choose from between Workington Town and Whitehaven.

The scoreline is at 12-12 after 40 minutes in a very tight encounter that has changed hands on a couple of occasions.

Whitehaven looked the more fired up of the two teams in the opening encounters and were putting the pressure on the home side in front of a packed audience.

It showed in the intensity of the tackling with Jessie Joe Parker, Callum Phillips and Kurt Maudling combining to bundle Gordon Maudling into touch near his own try line.

And that field advantage paid off as Haven whipped the ball out to the left and Sam Forrester burst over the try line to touch down, Connor Holliday adding the extras.

Town were not helping themselves with silly mistakes costing them as Haven were given a helping hand down the field again and Kris Coward was held up over the line.

But the home side finally seemed to wake up shortly after and a lovely little ball from Izaac Farrell allowed Gordon Maudling to gallop down the left flank before he was pulled down about 15 metres out.

After moving the ball to the opposite side of the field, James Worthington was just halted short of the line and Sean Penkywicz just couldn't get a hand to the final kick over the try line, although he did force a drop-out.

Penkywicz came closest for Town as a good spell got them onto the Haven tryline and he looked to stretch out to get it over but he just lost the ball.

Then in the 26th minute a little kick on the last from Carl Forber was captured over the line by Doran and he touched down to bring Town back into the game, Forber's kick levelling matters at 6-6.

That seemed to spur the home team on as a nice little offload from Caine Barnes gave a gap that Doran managed to get through to score his second of the afternoon, Forber again on target to give Workington the lead at 12-6.

A superb hit by Perry Singleton on Brett Phillips stopped the second rower in his tracks but then Town gave away a forward pass to give Haven a chance 20-metres out with the clock starting to tick down.

And they took it with both hands as a lovely little pass from Chris Taylor allowed Jordan Burns in at the corner flag to score and Jake Moore converted from the touchline to level at 12-12.

Dion Aiye proved his worth when he joined the fray and a big hit on Scott Rooke saw the ball come loose in front of the posts inside the last minute but Town just held out and it finished 12-12 at the break.