By Nathan Atkinson
KEIGHLEY Cougars got back on track in the Betfred Championship yesterday after thumping visiting Whitehaven 56-14.
On an afternoon which saw Bulls loanee Ronan Michael make his first appearance for Keighley, while Warrington youngster Joe Bajer made his second Cougars debut, Cougars ran riot.
It marked their first league win since they beat Goole on the opening day, and it moves Ian Hardman’s side up to eighth in the 20-team table.
Whitehaven had lost all three of their league games prior to this one, and they remain bottom of the table after this fourth successive humbling.
Any thoughts of this being a contest looked over when Keighley romped into a 22-0 lead inside the first quarter of the match.
Izaac Farrell, Brad Holroyd, Connor Sayner and Oliver Whitford all scored tries, while Matty Beharrell added three conversions.
Whitehaven briefly threatened to make a game of things when Jay Weatherill and Dave Eccleston crossed the whitewash.
That made the score 22-8 in Keighley’s favour after 36 minutes, but crucially, moments before half-time, George Flanagan’s converted try extended the home side’s lead.
And Keighley kicked on after the interval, Farrell and George Hill both going over for tries before the hour mark to give their side a 30-point advantage.
A late flurry added to Whitehaven’s humiliation, Jordan Schofield, Lucas Green and Alfie Dean all scoring converted tries.
The Cumbrians grabbed the tiniest consolation at the death, Jack Kellett’s try with a minute to go converted by Connor Holliday to at least take the visitors into double figures.
Keighley welcome another Cumbrian side to Cougar Park this Sunday, with winless Workington Town making the long journey over to West Yorkshire.
Hardman will be hopeful of a similar outcome for his side, admitting he was hugely satisfied with the way Cougars played yesterday.
He told the club’s in-house media team: “I’m really pleased with the result and the scoreline.
“I thought we started the game strongly, particularly our forwards, who carried the ball really well for us, showing their intent.
“Off the back of that, we got plenty of ruck wins and we were really direct in what we did with the ball.
“We turned the ball over in tough places and we were quite physical with that, which is what we were aiming to do.
“That put us into a decent lead, but I was a bit disappointed with the way we finished the first half.
“I thought we became a little loose defensively, and while Whitehaven deserve credit for that period, we could have handled it better and we could have improved our tryline defence.
“Overall, it was still a good first-half performance and after the break we really dominated.
“I was impressed with how we attacked the second half and we scored some really nice tries off the back of being really direct.”
While Hardman did not want to single out individual performances after a stellar team effort, he did touch upon those debuts for loanees Michael and Bajer.
The arrival of the pair of props is particularly well-timed, given their fellow front-rower, Jack Teanby, is set to miss the next 10 weeks with a shoulder injury.
Hardman said: “Ronan and Joe were really good and they brought exactly what we wanted from them.
“They had some good go forward and some aggression in defence.
“It also helped us with our balance in terms of the interchanges, having those two big bodies come in during the week.
“I’m really pleased with their performances and hopefully we see the same again next week.”
Keighley Cougars hammer Whitehaven with physical performance | Bradford Telegraph and Argus
