Whitehaven appoint James Coyle as coach

Whitehaven have appointed James Coyle as their new head coach, following the recent departure of Steve Deakin.

Coyle, 29, originally came to the club in October to combine playing with working as Deakin’s assistant.

He has been in charge of the team on a caretaker basis, assisted by former Hull FC half-back Brett Seymour.

Coyle will be in charge for the rest of the 2015 season.

Haven lost 34-4 at Bradford Bulls last weekend, but Coyle’s brother Thomas, who also plays for the club, thinks that there were positives to be taken from the performance.

“I thought it was a good performance,” Coyle told Cumbrian paper the News and Star.

“I think we may have let ourselves down a bit in attack. I don’t think the score was because of what Bradford did, it was more about the errors we made.

“But that’s good because it means we can put it right. If our completion rate was a bit higher or if we had done a little more in attack we could have come up with a result.

“James and Brett have been carrying on with what Deaks put in place and they are doing a great job.”