Counties One Yorkshire: Keighley 27 Beverley 5
Report by Bill Marshall
PROMOTION from Counties One Yorkshire may be a step too far for Keighley, but they would still like to finish Danny McGee’s last season as head coach with a flourish.
Their 27-5 home win over Beverley, which was essentially decided in the first 10 minutes of the second half, kept them third in the table, but they are still 16 points behind unbeaten leaders North Ribblesdale (who they visit on Saturday, February 15) and 12 behind Pocklington, who have played a game more.
McGee, who has also had a spell as director of rugby at Rose Cottage, explained his decision to step down after a decade of coaching there, saying: “I just need a bit of a break - to put my energies elsewhere for a little bit.
“It is nothing to do with the club, it is nothing to do with any health reasons. I have two young children - Finlay and Libby, who are nine and seven respectively - and both play down here and will be running out here on Sunday.
“It is hard work being a coach. It is not just Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. It is everything in between.
“I don’t clock in and out in terms of hours and it is hard to put a number on it, but it is just the mental side of things - if players are injured or thinking about sessions.
“I probably chat to James Cunliffe (forwards coach) more than I do my wife.”
McGee added of his decade: “It has been enjoyable, it has been great, but I need to put my head space and energy into other things.”
Keighley seem to be in a constant battle to be promoted from Counties One Yorkshire (or Yorkshire Division One as it was known before) and have fallen frustratingly short several times, notably last season when eventual champions Bradford Salem punctured their impressive home record.
But McGee can see progress in other aspects. He said: “We are getting three team out on a regular basis whereas before we were only getting two, and we have been developing and adapting a new style of rugby on our artificial pitch whereas before we were very forward oriented, and that new style of rugby will hopefully have entertained ‘the hill’ (banking behind the dugouts) a little bit more.”
McGee added: “Being realistic, promotion is probably out of the question this season, and that has been my biggest regret having come up from Yorkshire Two not to make it over the line into the North East divisions, but we have had not lost many down here over the past five or six years. We have made it a fortress.
“We still have a chance to finish second and go into a comparison of results with other divisions but the strength of Yorkshire One then counts against us, which is always a problem, in terms of our losses whereas in other divisions one or two teams pretty much run it and lose very few games.
“If you lose more than two or three games in our division then your chances of going up are pretty slim.”
McGee, who admitted that he would still be coming down to watch Keighley play in future seasons, said of the display against fifth-placed Beverley: “Both teams made mistakes in the first half, and we told the lads at half-time to stop offloading the ball when we didn’t have to and be stronger in the tackle, and that made the difference in the second half.
“We know that Beverley are a good side, but we felt that if we put the phases together we would eventually break them down, as we did in the first half with our try.
“If you put five or six phases together in this division then you are going to score tries. Fin Meegan had big boots to fill with Alex Brown missing at fly half for personal reasons, and he did well.”
Keighley were penalised in the first minute for a dummy throw at a line-out in a game that was well refereed by 18-year-old Matthew Atkinson (South Yorkshire Society), but they were rewarded when they finally put a sustained attack together in the 22nd minute.
Captain Alfie Seeley scored in the right corner, but three minutes later the visitors levelled via player-coach Rob Smith down the left wing after a neat offload by centre Alex Calvert.
Both sides should have scored more than five points each in the stanza, but Smith kicked a penalty dead and missed a pot at goal for Beverley, who looked dangerous from deep, and Keighley generally failed to put their phases together, although a nice Meegan offload almost sent centre Sean Kelly through.
Minutes 40-50 were dominated by Keighley, who were switched on when their opponents weren’t, winger Stead scoring on the right in the 41st minute before adding a superb conversion.
Beverley then failed to kick off the requisite 10 metres. Full back Taylor Prell was held up over the line six minutes later, but there was to be no reprieve as, in the 48th minute, Meegan scored their third try.
Stead added a penalty to make it 20-5 in the 57th minute and he was on the end of a beautiful move two minutes later for the bonus-point fourth try, also adding the conversion.
Beverley, who lost flanker Lewis Szrama to a head injury in the first half, had a man advantage after lock Adam Kemp was sin-binned for a high tackle in the 74th minute, and tried their utmost to bag a second try, but Keighley were not in the mood to allow them, exemplified by Prell hauling an opponent into touch in the last play of the match.
Keighley, who have not announced a successor to McGee yet, will have to call on their squad depth next Saturday at home to seventh-placed Wensleydale as five of their players will be at Twickenham watching England v France.