By MARK CASHMAN

West Harbour travelled to Newcastle expecting an arm wrestle against the Hunter Wildfires and in their 41-26 victory on Saturday that’s exactly what they got.

Wests coach Mark Gudmunson tipped his hat to the stickability of the hosts.

“What a great facility they have up there,” Gudmunson said.

“It was an interesting game where I thought that we were always in control, but we just could not get a really big gap like the previous week against the Two Blues.

“That is a credit to Scott (Coleman) and the Wildfires players, they did not stop ‘till the final whistle.”

In the end Wests scored six tries to four and in the formative stages of the game worked their way to a 15-0 before Wildfires centre Chase Hicks got the home side on the board with a five pointer.

There were some major disruptions for the Wildfires before the game with their Tongan Test scrum half Mahe Fangupo having to head to Forbes for personal reasons.

That saw Paul Dan start in the No.9 jersey while Wildfires coach Scott Coleman also rotated in a couple of fresh forwards as they come to terms with the tough nature and grind of the Shute Shield.

The halftime score was 15-5 to Wests and although there were some bright spots for the Wildfires they were far from being consistent.

“One of the big things has been a lack of preparation [before the start of the season] and a lot of injuries at the moment, but I can’t fault the commitment and attitude and want to compete at this level,” Coleman told the Newcastle Herald.

“We’re just too patchy. On and the off. When we’re on we can score some really good tries and put together some really good passages of play.

“But we switch off for 10 minutes and we fall off tackles and let our opposition score two or three tries.”

On the Wests side of the ledger Damien Fleming played his 50th game for the club and worked hard all day.

Tavite Gadeisuva switch to blindside breakaway was successful, according too Gunmunson said.

“Tavite really showed some good touches through the middle and was great on the ball in defence while our whole scrum was really strong again.”

WEST HARBOUR 41 (Jordan Sharp, Tavite Gadeisuva, Dion Spice, Patrick Pellegrini, James Turner, Justin Tavaetries; Pellegrini 3 conversions, pen goal, Kodie Drury-Hawkins conversion) d HUNTER WILDFIRES 26 (George Noa, Hamish McKie 2, Chase Hicks tries; Paul Dan conversion, Taulogo Lalaga 2 conversions) at Newcastle No.2 Sportsground.

IMAGE: JEREMY BRENNAN / WEST HARBOUR