By Nathan Atkinson of the T&A
KEIGHLEY Cougars paid for a slow start and a devastating ending as they lost a dramatic Betfred Championship clash 22-20 at Dewsbury Rams yesterday.
Jacob Hookem’s last-gasp penalty sealed victory for the hosts, who were outplayed after the first six minutes.
But they caught Keighley cold early on, converted tries from winger Tom Delaney and second row Brad Graham putting them 12-0 up.
After that nightmare opening, Cougars regained their composure and got on the board just after the quarter-hour mark.
Young flyer Dylan Proud crossed the whitewash and joint-captain Matty Beharrell added the extras.
Hookem’s penalty increased Dewsbury’s lead to 14-6, but the home side were then stunned by Brad Holroyd’s double strike.
The Keighley winger scored twice in eight minutes and with Beharrell successfully landing both conversions, the visitors edged in front.
It was the Rams who took a narrow lead into the break though, as former Cougars player Valu Tane Bentley grabbed a try after 38 minutes, which was converted by Hookem.
Cougars were 20-18 down at the interval and they had also lost influential centre Max Clarke, who was the victim of a nasty high tackle from Jacob Parkinson.
The Dewsbury man was only yellow carded over the incident, when most of a Keighley persuasion felt he should have been sent off.
Cougars missed Clarke’s try-scoring prowess after the break and the game descended into a messy affair.
There were errors galore from both sides in difficult playing conditions, while Dewsbury’s Dan Coates and Keighley’s Lachlan Lanskey both saw yellow after a fracas just before the hour mark.
Cougars thought they had nicked a point when Beharrell levelled the scores six minutes from the end with a penalty off the back of a Dewsbury high tackle.
But Hookem had the last word at the death, scoring from nearly 35 metres to win the game for the Rams after Keighley had been penalised for an illegal ball steal.
Cougars head coach Danny Burton spoke to the club’s in-house media team after the game, saying: “It was the game we planned for, a stop-start one.
“We tried to keep it flowing as much as we could, and we anticipated there were going to be plenty of handbags with everyone running in.
“We could see why they were doing that because some of their forwards were gone, so they did it to get their energy back up.
“We kept getting caught up in that and kept them in the game in the second half.
“But we’d given them a 12-point start and we were way off in that first 10 minutes.
“The intensity was off and they marched us down the field straight from kick-off.
“You’d expect us to have energy and win that battle but we weren’t there.
“That was a concern, but then we came alive and kicked into how we should play.”
He added: “It’s a muddy field and we tried to throw some shapes, but we played wet weather rugby, turning Dewsbury back on the inside.
“We virtually fell over the line but it wasn’t hard to get over, it was just our silliness keeping them in the game.
“It was quite a simple message for the second half, just to high kick to the corner and wait for their mistakes.
“We did that for half-an-hour and you could see Dewsbury cracking, but then we gave away five penalties in the last 10 minutes which got them back in the game.
“We just needed a bit more composure, as we also had three or four chances to win the game late on, but I’ve spoken to the lads and they’ll learn from this.
“Ultimately, they’re disappointed because it was their ill-discipline which gave the game to Dewsbury.”
Powerful young prop Leo Aliyu missed the game after taking a knock to the head in the Challenge Cup win over Heworth the previous weekend, but he should return this Sunday as Cougars host Midlands Hurricanes in the next round of the cup.
Keighley Cougars lose at death in Dewsbury Rams thriller | Bradford Telegraph and Argus
