Eaton: Cougars can compete with best (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Keighley boss takes positives from cup loss

7:08pm Sunday 7th March 2010 in Sport By Connor Murphy, Bradford Bulls Reporter

Cougars boss Barry Eaton believes his team proved they can compete with their Championship rivals despite a Challenge Cup exit at the hands of Toulouse.

Their 35-26 defeat to the Frenchmen was disappointing but showed a massive improvement on the previous week’s 72-10 league loss to Widnes.

Eaton had called for a response following the shock of that mauling in Keighley’s first game back in English rugby league’s second tier and was pleased with his players’ response.

“We were much improved on the previous week, especially in defence, but there is still a lot we can work on,” he said.

“We have to understand we’ve made a step up in class and if you give the ball away cheaply against Championship sides, they’ll punish you for it.

“Every time we scored against Toulouse, we didn’t complete the next set, whereas they made sure it was a safely completed set and then put in a good kick downfield.

“It meant they scored three times almost immediately after we had scored and there were four tries that could easily have been avoided.

“But we were more than a match with them and I don’t have any worries about going there in the league in two weeks’ time.”

Toulouse took an early lead at Cougar Park through tries from Sebastien Planas and Clement Bienes, both converted by Nathan Wynn.

But the Cougars hit back strongly, Ryan Benjafield, Tom Burton and Jonny Presley all touching down, with Danny Jones and Wynn both scoring goals to leave the score tied at 14-14.

Just two minutes after Presley had scored, Johan Tisseyre replied to send Toulouse into the break with a narrow lead and although George Rayner struck after the break, Planas crossed again soon after to cancel it out.

Wynn scored and converted a try before Andy Shickell pounced, Jones adding the extras, to leave the visitors ahead by two points entering the final quarter.

Keighley had chances to win the tie but Rory Bromley’s try three minutes from time killed the game off, Wynn adding the conversion and a late drop goal.

Eaton said: “At 28-26 we had a great opportunity. We’d worked on crossfield kicks to their winger because we thought that was an area we could exploit.

“We created the opportunity and if the kick had been right we probably would have won the game but it didn’t work out.

“It still wouldn’t have taken away from the fact we gifted them some soft tries but as long as we learn from this and keep improving, I’ll be happy.”