Whitehaven Warriors 45, Keighley Cougars 16

RL match report by Richard Sutcliffe.

Cougars coach Lee Crooks will this week step up his bid to strengthen his side after seeing them crash heavily against a more powerful Whitehaven outfit.

Cougars were made to pay for a number of needless mistakes in a game which they will want to forget.

Whitehaven were much better all over the field with their powerful pack dominating Keighley to such an extent that they were 34-0 in front after just 48 minutes.

And despite a late fightback which saw Cougars give the score some respectability as they finally began to carry the ball forward with some conviction, Crooks is not fooled as to the size of the task facing him.

He said: "We got bullied out of the game in the first ten minutes and then made some silly mistakes. It was very disappointing after last week's win over Leigh.

"I am trying to bring a number of players to the club. I want a back row man and a prop to boost our pack. We also need an experienced half back and I hope something will happen this week."

Injuries to key players certainly didn't help Cougars at the Recreation Ground with flu-hit full back Matt Foster joining a long list of players ruled out.

But even allowing for the injury situation this defeat illustrated just how far Keighley will have to go to if they are to climb the table.

Their pack has to be one of the smallest in the division and was no match for the likes of powerful Samoan Siose Muliumu who ran in two tries and caused problems for Cougars all afternoon.

For Keighley, Fred Sapatu and Dave Larder deserve great credit for the way they stuck to their task and, along with Phil Stephenson, they were the only Cougars to make decent yardage against the tough tackling home side.

Scrum half Chris Robinson also kept going till the end and played a major part in Cougars' three late tries, but these performances apart it was pretty wretched stuff from Crooks' men.

In the first half in particular, they gave away a succession of needless penalties and spilled possession to allow Whitehaven to put their line under almost constant pressure.

And because of their size, Warriors were running ten to 15 yards on each tackle while Keighley struggled to get out of their own half.

One mistake which did prove vital came in the eighth minute when Whitehaven were already in front thanks to Graeme Morton's try.

A great break by Sapatu put Simon Irving over the Warriors tryline and yet while attempting to get under the posts, the centre allowed a home defender to punch the ball out of his grasp and into the crowd.

A try at that stage could have settled Cougars and coupled with both Irving and Robinson missing relatively simple conversions in the opening period, it meant their confidence evaporated.

Instead, Whitehaven ran in three further tries before the break through Muliumu (two) and Wesley Wilson.

Two further touchdowns in the first eight minutes of the second half meant there was no way back for Cougars.

The late rally which saw Irving, Ramshaw and debutante Chris Parker score tries at least showed that Keighley's fitness has improved in the last two weeks thanks to some intensive training, but Crooks knows he has a tough task ahead.

He said: "We must learn to control the ball a lot better. We had a couple of try scoring opportunities which we failed to take while we also dropped the ball on the first tackle.

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