NORTH WALES CRUSADERS 30 KEIGHLEY COUGARS 16
IAN RIGG, Stadiwm CSM, Sunday

NORTH WALES secured the League One trophy with a hard-fought victory over Keighley in front of a good crowd in the sun and rain.

They ran up a 30-0 half-time lead, but failed to score again as the Cougars mounted a strong rearguard action, although they could never get back to within striking distance.

The hosts took the lead in the fifth minute when the Cougars were penalised for a high tackle 30 metres from their own line, which allowed them to exert pressure on the line for Patrick Ah Van to pounce on a loose ball to score in the right corner with Jordy Gibson landing the conversion, as he would for every Crusaders try.

Izaac Farrell’s restart kick went dead and from the penalty Joe Baldwin got to the line and was held up, but in the next play Lloyd Roby slipped a pass for Chris Barratt to crash in by the posts.

The Crusaders were running riot and scored again three minutes later when Sam Wilde went over.

Keighley had very few chances in the first half and when they did the home defence held them out.

Roby had a good chance on twenty minutes but it took a great tackle from Brad Holroyd to hold him out, before George Flanagan and Lachlan Lanskey both went close for the Cougars.

Toby Hughes sold a huge dummy to the Cougars’ defence, however, to dart over for the Crusaders’ fourth try.

Keighley lost Jordan Schofield to the sin bin five minutes from the break for a late hit and a minute later Barratt added his second try under the posts.

There was one more chance before the break when Ant Walker got a pass out to the supporting Barratt, but the pass was forward.

The Crusaders introduced their 18th man Jack Holmes to the field one minute into the second half after Jordan Case failed a head assessment upon leaving the field late in the first half.

Whatever Alan Kilshaw said to his team at the break seemed to work as they had a great second half, asking many questions of the Crusaders’ defence.

They got themselves on the scoreboard on 42 minutes when the impressive Lachlan Lanskey made a great break to feed Junior Nuu, who scored on the left, but Matty Beharrell hit the post with his conversion attempt.

Keighley’s halfbacks were coming more into the game, causing problems for the Crusaders’ defence, but they were facing a huge deficit.

An incident went on report on the hour when Schofield was subject to a high tackle. This put the Cougars on the attack again and Mark Ioane had a great chance but just lost the ball near the line.

The try of the match came on 67 minutes when a nicely weighted kick ran kind for Oli Whitford and he won the race to score with Beharrell converting.

North Wales then launched some late pressure on the Cougars’ line, but they held out and it was the visitors who scored the final try with the last play of the game when Aaron Brown dummied through to score by the posts and Beharrell converted as the hooter sounded.

GAMESTAR: Chris Barratt scored two well-taken tries in the first half and had a solid game throughout.

GAMEBREAKER: The Crusaders’ quick start with the early tries laid the platform for victory.

MATCHFACTS
CRUSADERS
1 Lloyd Roby
21 Ollie Brookes
20 Jake Spedding
3 Kieran Taylor
5 Patrick Ah Van
6 Toby Hughes
7 Jordy Gibson
23 Paddy Jones
14 Joe Baldwin
10 Chris Barratt
11 Sam Wilde
12 Cole Oakley
28 Jordan Case
Subs (all used)
8 Jack Houghton
15 Shaun Costello
19 Josh Eaves
32 Ant Walker
18th man (used)
2 Jack Holmes

Tries: Ah Van (5), Barratt (9, 36), Wilde (13), Hughes (27)
Goals: Gibson 5/5

COUGARS
32 Connor Sayner
2 Brad Holroyd
4 Junior Sa’u
19 Junior Nuu
20 Oli Whitford
6 Izaac Farrell
43 Matty Beharrell
10 Mark Ioane
9 George Flanagan
29 Lucas Green
11 Brad England
12 Lachlan Lanskey
13 Aaron Brown
Subs (all used)
44 Oli Burton
15 Dan Parker
16 Jordan Schofield
28 Bobby Hartley

Tries: Nuu (42), Whitford (67), Brown (80)
Goals: Beharrell 2/3
Sin bin: Schofield (35) – late tackle

SCORING SEQUENCE: 6-0, 12-0, 18-0, 24-0, 30-0; 30-4, 30-10, 30-16

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Crusaders: Chris Barratt; Cougars: Lachlan Lanskey

Penalty count: 10-8
Half-time: 30-0
Referee: Andy Sweet
Attendance: 821