WHITEHAVEN RL faced a defeat as they took on Bradford Bulls. 

The West Cumbrian side took on the Yorkshire outfit at the Ortus Rec coming away with a 18-36 loss. 

Head coach Jonty Gorley said: "I thought in the first half we were good for our lead. I thought we did score another try but that's what it is, it should have been 18-6. 

"But we were decent in the first half, we had three more sets than them in the first half and scored a couple more tries. 

"I thought we were hungry in defense in the first half, but when halftime came, they were a different team, and we didn't stay with them. 

"In the first fifteen minutes, they got three tries, completing nine out of ten sets, and we only had the ball three times and completed twice. 

"It all takes its toll, in the first set of the second half when we got the ball, we didn't get a kick away and we didn't recover from that for the period of about ten or fifteen minutes. 

"I don't think we got in their half until after the twenty-minute mark. So doing all that defending online you have to put the effort in, but with teams like this they're going to crack it eventually, it's Championship, that's what happens with pressure. 

"I just think it would have been nice to get that try, but we didn't lose the game because of that, we lost the game because we weren't as good in the second half as we were in the first one. 

"Losing Maizen in the first half didn't help, you saw what he did for his try, and he's done his hamstring. So that means we're putting Joey in full back and Jake Carter in centre, who did a decent job defensively, but you miss them at the half when you're doing that. 

"With Maizen coming off it did affect us a bit with our positional organisation, I do think they notched up a gear in the second half and we weren't great to be fair."