Ilkley 10 – 10 Keighley - Rock on Tommy it’s a Shaw Thing !!

After several weeks without a game Keighley travelled to Ilkley who defeated Keighley 27 – 28 in November.

Ilkley opened the scoring after 7 minutes despite strong tackling from Keighley.

Ilkley continued to keep possession, and run at Keighley’s defence, but Keighley tackled hard with Cameron Collinge putting in some brave tackles to deny Ilkley’s impressive winger. Ultimately the pressure told and Ilkley created space for their second unconverted try.

Half-Time saw Keighley 10 – 0 behind, but the players responded to their coaches advice at half time, and repeatedly turned over Ilkley possession and then moved the ball wide, where Vero, Pratt and Thorpe made piercing runs, assisted by Louis Holmes, Todd, Rothery and Shaw, whilst the second row combination of Kirkland and King burst through tacklers to create space. This allowed them to move the ball out to the wings opening up the Ilkley defence, and Collinge was rewarded with a fine try after ten minutes.

Keighley were now dominating the game with hard work in the mauls from Connor Holmes and Bradley Akrigg, and five minutes later Todd made a rampaging break before providing the scoring pass to Ryan Vero.

Ilkley rallied, but these teams are equally matched and despite some good rugby the score remained a draw.

There were several players worthy of Man of The Match in what was an all round team performance, but this was jointly awarded to Kaleb Shaw and Tommy Thorpe for their determination on the day.