Rugby League: Pendlebury pleased with Halifax's start

JOHN PENDLEBURY, the Halifax coach, insists his unfashionable side's superb start to the Super League season has not taken him by surprise.

The Blue Sox were tipped by many to be one of the also-rans this year, especially after their dreadful finish to the 1997 campaign. However, Saturday's 28-22 defeat of Sheffield moved Halifax level on points with the champions, Bradford, and kept them on course for a place in the end- of-season play-offs.

Pendlebury, who three weeks ago walked out on Blue Sox before withdrawing his resignation 24 hours later, has assembled a hard-working team on a shoestring budget and they have beaten the Bulls, St Helens and the Eagles in successive weekends, but that is no surprise to Pendlebury. "I don't think the players are exceeding expectations too much," he said. "We are just doing the little things right, which has obviously helped us get into the position we're in at the moment."

Halifax rarely looked in danger of losing at Sheffield, although Darren Turner's late try caused some panic in the visitors' ranks.

"I don't think it was a fantastic performance," Pendlebury said. "We let them back in the game late on, which was a little bit unprofessional, but we got the two points and we have to be content with that."

The Eagles have lost all five of their home League games so far this year. Their coach, John Kear, said: "Some players seem to have slipped into the comfort zone since we won the Challenge Cup."

Fereti Tuilagi scored a try either side of half-time for the Blue Sox with Paul Rowley, Martin Pearson and David Bouveng also crossing for the visitors.

The debutant Neil Law, Nick Pinkney, Keith Senior - with his fifth try in his last five League games - and Turner replied for the Eagles, who suffered their sixth defeat in eight Super League outings.

The first amateur rugby league international played in Scotland ended in a 21-16 victory for the Irish. It was a scrappy affair with too many handling errors.

The Irish made their experience count with Tony Mullins taking advantage of a Scottish fumble to run 60 metres for the opening try, which Gareth Doherty converted. Brian Carney and Tony Newall added further tries, but the latter had to go off with a broken shoulder.

Scotland's best move was finished off by Rob Gill with Alec Donaghy converting.