Keighley 31 Leodiensians 0

Keighley with their pack in fine form made a brisk start. A surging run by centre Adam Horsfall was taken on by prop Sam Booker which eventually led to a scrum and a series of rucks. The ever present Leigh Sugden saw a gap and dived over to open the scoring. Leos responded well, their forwards put the home side under pressure, but to no avail, the aggressive defence held firm. Eventually flanker Shaun Minikin broke out of defence, and had the good sense to keep the ball alive, some quick hands gave winger Luke Carter the opportunity to score wide out, Olly Mitchell added the difficult conversion.

Keighley with dominant forwards and experienced backs played the game that suited the weather conditions. The half back pairing of Needham and Wilkinson controlled play, keeping the ball close to the forwards or finding space for strong inside centre Adam Horsfall to trouble Leo’s defence with strong surging runs. The pressure told, quick ball after excellent ground work from the forwards found Horsfall in space, instead of driving it forward he found Leigh Sugden in close support and the big forwards second try, Mitchell added the extras.

In the second half Leo’s came out fighting, with outside half Ed Farmer, probably one of the best outside halves in the league, a constant threat. He varied his play well linking with his support players. However, the well organised Keighley defence and the difficult weather conditions denied them space and time.

Although they tried hard and gained good possession and territory through strong running from their centres Bindloss and Thompson, they were unable to score. Towards the end of the game, after absorbing a lot of pressure the Keighley forwards well led by captain and hooker Will Armitage turned the screw.

Camped in the opposition twenty two metre area they recycled the ball well until Leo’s defence was unable to cope with the constant driving play, which led to a hat trick try for Leigh Sugden and a valuable bonus point, the try was converted by Olly Mitchell. With minutes remaining the Keighley scrum capitalised on their dominance with a push over try, claimed by the promising young back rower Elliott Barker.