KEIGHLEY COUGARS 24 MIDLANDS HURRICANES 26
CHRISTIAN LEE, Cougar Park, Sunday
MIDLANDS survived a late Keighley comeback to maintain their unbeaten start to the season.
The home side’s flying winger Billy Walkley crossed for four tries on the day, but it wasn’t enough to prevent a third successive defeat for the Cougars.
It was a fast start to the game as the Midlands’ Todd Horner and Walkley crossed for two tries apiece inside the opening 25 minutes.
Horner opened the scoring in the corner after benefiting from some slick work from Sully Medforth before Walkley replied in kind as he gathered in a bulleted miss pass from Brandon Pickersgill which put the Cougars winger untouched.
Horner replied with his second minutes later as again the Hurricanes were able to unlock Keighley’s left edge before Pickersgill linked with Walkley to hit back for Keighley.
Jake Sweeting’s solitary conversion for the opening score would separate the sides by just two points until a trio of tries put the visitors in control.
There were more problems for Keighley down the left as, after forcing a goal line dropout, Midlands again attacked down that edge and Ryan Johnson barged over despite the best efforts of Ewan Smith.
Moments later, Midlands chose to go the opposite way and after giving an early ball to Luis Roberts the winger powered past Walkley and reached out to score.
Finally, a messy last-tackle play almost saw Daniel Barcoe caught in a tackle, but he managed to offload and the ball was shifted to Ross Oakes, who touched down in the corner.
After Sweeting had missed the last two kicks, Medforth took over the kicking duties and added the goal on the hooter from out wide to give the Hurricanes a sizeable 24-8 lead at the break.
It was vital that Keighley scored first after the break and they did through Walkley, who completed his hat-trick on the 50-minute mark.
The Cougars laboured in attack through multiple sets on the Midlands line but eventually Pickersgill improvised a grubber kick which Walkley dived on. Miller failed to tag on the goal.
However, the Cougars struggled to create meaningful scoring chances and their task was made harder midway through the second half as Sweeting, back on kicking duties, kicked a penalty goal from in front of the posts.
But just as Midlands looked to be comfortably cruising to victory, Keighley found a way through and two quick tries set up a grandstand finish.
Midlands’ Horner lost the ball in the tackle and as he remonstrated with the Keighley defenders and both sides came together, Walkley picked up the ball and streaked away with only Sweeting in pursuit to score his fourth try.
This was followed minutes later by a deft pass that put second rower Nolan Tupaea over for a debut try.
Miller was on target with both conversions to bring Keighley within two points and the home side thought they had won it late as they touched down in the corner, but Izaac Farrell’s offload back over his shoulder was adjudged to have gone forward.
GAMESTAR: Despite the defeat it’s hard to look past Billy Walkley, given that he crossed for four tries on the day.
GAMEBREAKER: Jake Sweeting’s penalty goal midway through the second half turned out to be the difference between the two sides.
MATCHFACTS
COUGARS
1 Brandon Pickersgill
2 Brad Holroyd
36 Ewan Smith
3 Adam Ryder
5 Billy Walkley
6 Izaac Farrell
7 Jack Miller
16 Jordan Schofield
9 George Flanagan
11 Brad England
22 Valu Tane Bentley
30 Nolan Tupaea
29 Lucas Green
Subs (all used)
13 Aaron Brown
10 Mark Ioane
23 Leo Aliyu
8 Lewis Hatton
Tries: Walkley (12, 22, 50, 65), Tupaea (71)
Goals: Miller 2/5
HURRICANES
1 Todd Horner
2 Matty Chrimes
3 Ryan Johnson
4 Ross Oakes
25 Luis Roberts
6 Jake Sweeting
21 Sully Medforth
8 Jon-Luke Kirby
14 Aiden Roden
20 Elliot Morris
11 Tom Wilkinson
15 Aaron Willis
13 Michael Wood
Subs (all used)
9 Daniel Barcoe
19 Marcus Green
16 Ellis Hobson
18 Zeus Silk
Tries: Horner (9, 17), Johnson (29), Roberts (32), Oakes (40)
Goals: Sweeting 2/5, Medforth 1/1
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 4-6, 4-10, 8-10, 8-14, 8-18, 8-24; 12-24, 12-26, 18-26, 24-26
Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Cougars: Billy Walkley; Hurricanes: Todd Horner
Penalty count: 4-4
Half-time: 8-24
Referee: Kevin Moore
Attendance: 1,345
