Cougars 14 Villeneuve Leopards 16 - GRANT DOOREY delivered the killer blow which knocked Cougars out of the Challenge Cup -- and put a French team through to the fifth round for the first time.

The former Keighley favourite, who has coached Villeneuve to two successive French Championships, delivered the coup de grce to his old team after their fans had suffered 79 minutes of pure torture.

He drove at the Cougar line, spun in the tackle, and dived over to seal a famous victory.

If it was torture on the terraces the Cougar performance must have been absolute agony for coach Karl Harrison. The previous week he had revelled in a display of pure poetry against top of the table Dewsbury, this time they struggled with the basic 'ABC' of rugby league.

Harrison had been happy to see his team cut out 'schoolboy' errors against the Rams, but they descended to the level of the Kindergarten against a French outfit which struggled to beat amateurs Lock Lane in the previous round.

The trouble was some of the Cougar players thought they only had to turn up to claim victory, but before you could say 'President Mitterand' the Villeneuve underdogs had scored three tries and led 12-2.

Martin Wood pulled out of the game with injury on Sunday morning, and was badly missed. Harrison reshuffled his team, but without Wood the Cougars lacked creativity. The void became wider when Jason Ramshaw was carried off with a knee injury after only fifteen minutes.

Coach Karl Harrison was quick to acknowledge the absence of Wood as a key factor in the difference between this performance and the Dewsbury game saying: "We missed Woody massively. He is one of the most creative players in the Division and any team would miss a player of his quality. But some of our players need to look long and hard in the mirror after this game.

"They lacked the intensity of preparation and expected Villeneuve to be a pushover."

Many fans were less diplomatic as they shuffled out of Cougar Park, angry that they had been let down by a performance which lacked any semblance of professional pride. Keighley tackling had all the intensity of Boy George's powder-puff. They failed to take advantage of the low sun with high kicks -- despite being given a first half master class by Villeneuve, and they repeatedly gave away possession within yards of their own line.

The defeat also placed the spotlight on Harrison's urgent need to find a reliable goal kicker, which would often make the difference between victory and defeat.

The warning signs were there early in the game as Villeneuve ran in three quick tries, with Doorey barking instructions to his side in French. All the Cougars could manage was a Jason Lee penalty in reply.

Gilles Cornut crashed through Ian Hughes' flimsy tackle in the 4th minute.

Four minutes later the magnificently named man of the match Vincent Wulf collected his own chip kick , passed to Pierre Sabatie who sent Ludovic Perolari over in the corner.

Lee landed the penalty after Matt Foster had gone close to make it 8-2.

Villeneuve extended their lead when a high kick was fumbled by Craig Horne. From the scrum they worked the ball to Sabatie who cut inside Nathan Antonik to touchdown.

Five minutes later the Cougars at last got a try of their own when they worked the ball wide from a tap penalty for Foster to send Richard Smith racing through. Lee failed with the conversion but later landed a penalty to make it 12-8 at the break.

They could have been two points closer if they had taken a kick at goal, instead of trying to run a penalty with only seconds on the clock.

Harrison's half time team talk inspired a brief sense of urgency. Lee failed with two long range penalties before the Cougars grabbed a second try and an all too brief lead.

A rare French error saw a scrum awarded to the Cougars ten metres from the French line. Steve Hall was held on the line but slipped the ball to Phil Stephenson who stretched under the posts, Lee converted to make it 14-12.

Having fought their way into the lead Cougars should have had the determination -- and the skill -- to hold on.

But the Leopards defence held firm, Smith's long break was ruined by a knock on, and Villeneuve always looked the more likely to score.

They had a fourth try disallowed when Petolari was offside as he collected Freddie Banquets grubber kick down the line.

Just as the Cougar faithful thought they could breath a sigh of relief Doorey came up with the fairy tale ending for his side.

With 11 minutes left there was still time to mount a final charge, but the French side defended deep and only allowed the Cougars one half chance. Hall just failed to collect his own kick ahead -- and the game was gone.

Cougars: Foster; Horne, Rushforth, R Smith, Lee; Owen, Antonik; Slicker, Ramshaw, Boothroyd, Harrison, Hughes, Pickles. Subs (all used) Robinson, Hall, Stephenson, Thompson.

Villeneuve Leopards: Banquet; Perolari, Cornut, Brioux, Doste, Frayssinous, Despin; Collado, Wulf, Gaggliazzo, Doorey, Sabatie, Carrassco. Subs (all used): Bloomfield, Shead, Rinaldi, Canal.

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