League One champions North Wales Crusaders ended their 2025 campaign with a defeat in Cumbria as Whitehaven secured a 28-24 victory on home soil.
On an afternoon which saw former North Wales head coach Anthony Murray put his Whitehaven side up against ex-Haven player / coach Carl Forster’s league champions, it was the home side who took the two points on the final day of the season.
Crusaders’ defensive efforts were tested early on as back-to-back penalties were added to by the sin-binning of Olly Davies.
However, Forster’s side stood strong to the challenge as their defence scrambled to keep Haven at bay.
Rewarded for their efforts down one end of the field, Crusaders opened the scoring at the other as Sam Wilde crashed through the home side’s defence to score.
Not willing to allow the champions an easy victory, Whitehaven took the lead moments later as they capitalised on good field position with Jack Keller touching down.
Crusaders re-took the lead with just shy of 30 minutes on the clock as Kieran Taylor sent Pat Ah Van over in the corner.
The extended their advantage late into the first-half as a nicely weighted kick from Toby Hughes was found by Kieran Taylor who crossed the whitewash to give the visitors a 16-6 lead going into the break.
The second-half however largely belonged to the hosts as they capitalised on Crusaders errors.
Two scores within minutes of each other from Colgate and Weatherhill respectively saw Haven re-take the lead, before Ah Van secured his brace for the afternoon to give his side a two point advantage.
As the end-to-end affair entered its final moments, the home side broke free, running 60 meters before nailing a touchline conversion to make it 26-20 in their favour.
The lead was extended in the final ten minutes as Abram nailed a penalty awarded following two yellow cards shown to Crusaders.
In spite of the result, Matt Reid ensured a fitting end to his rugby league career in the final seconds of the game as he walked through the Whitehaven defence, bringing the final score to 28-24 to the hosts.