COUGARS saved their best until the last game of a very frustrating season.

After a string of performances which have left fans and coach Lee Crooks tearing their hair out in desperation, they finally turned in a fully professional performance which left the mighty Hull Kingston Rovers a humbled outfit.

Three second half tries saw them to victory after overcoming a 6-2 deficit.

The Cougars only trailed at the break because of one missed tackle, Mark Campbell falling off Chris Kitching in the 28th minute as the Rovers stand-of ghosted through for the only try of the half.

Both teams traded early penalties, Nathan Antonik landing the first and Chris Charles replying for Rovers.

Other than that the opening stagres were fairly dull, puntuated with errors from both sides as each found difficulty breaking down the other's defence.

Charles spilled a certain try for rovers before a fine burst by Alex Smits looked to have created a try for the Cougars. Smits' one-handed pass bouncing off mark Campbell's knees.

The second half was a completely different story.

For the first time this year Cougars cut out the errors and didn't concede a penalty. For 40 minutes they played the kind of rugby Crooks has been searching for all season.

Stars of the second half show were Nathan Antonik and Chris Robinson, who both showed the skill and creativity to breat down the previously stern defence.

Antonik gave the Cougars the perfecrt start to the half when he finished off a five-man passing move to level the scores in the 42nd minute. Christian Tyrer started it all by deciding to run the ball on the sixth tackle, which took the Rovers defence completely by surprise.

Jason Ramshaw put a flip pass out to Lee Hansen, he handed on to Fred Sapatu and from there Antonik did the rest, side stepping through the line.

Eight minutes later it got even better, and the Cougars were really dominating. Brock McDonald burst through two tackles to touch down, and although only four points ahead victory now looked likely.

The only time Rovers looked like scoring came on the hour, a high kick was missed by the otherwise faultless Karl Smith, but the pass that sent Howard Hill over was judged forward.

The try of the game settled the contest. Chris Robinson darted through again and again from acting half, and from deepinside his own half he raced 30 metres before sending Antonik away on a 40 metre run to the posts, this time he also managed to convert.

Ramshaw's 79th minute drop goal, a beauty from 30 metres was the icing on the cake.

It also brought the curtain down on another Cougar season, a season of unfulfilled promise.

The directors were keen to point to the appalling start, eight defeats from nine games, and they must take some of the blame for that start. But there have also been a number of shocking defeats since then, Rochdale at home, Widnes away, and more recently the game two weeks ago at home to Featherstone. They contributed to the club missing out on a place in the play-off programme.

It is then truly a time to accept collective responsibility and reflect over the close season. They must now make sure everything is in place for the next campaign -- whenever that is.

Brock McDonald again impressed at Rovers and should probably share any Player of the Year awards with Lee Hansen. the towering Tongan certainly added steel to a flimsy front row, and has probably been the single biggest factor in the club's improved performances.

The club's problem area has been half-back, Crooks now has five to shoose from: Antonik, Robinson, Tyrer, Davide Longo and Paul Owen, but has yet to find the right combination, a problem he has to sort out before the next season kicks off.

Hull KR: Sibary, Beauchamp, Damby, Hill, R Smith, Kitching, Parker, DAnnatt, Brown, Hardy, A Smith, Harltey, Charles. Subs: Atkins, Thompson, Dixon, Scott.

Cougars: Foster, Wray, McDonald, Laurence, K Smith, Tyrer, Antonik, Hansen, Robinson, smits, Sapatu, N Campbell, Ramshaw. Subs: Rich, S Campbell, Summerill.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.