Halifax 42

Keighley Cougars 12

The Cougars turned in possibly their worst performance so far this season in conceding nine tries and losing 42-12 to an impressive Halifax outfit in their Northern Rail Cup tie yesterday.

Cougars coach Gary Moorby was far from impressed, saying: "I'm very very disappointed. We got off to a poor start and allowed Halifax to build up a considerable lead and it was all down to our errors. Against teams like Halifax, every error is going to get punished, and that's just what happened.

"We had one or two little spells that looked quite good but then we would go and ruin all the hard work by turning the ball over or conceding a penalty.

"Poor discipline certainly let us down, and that's something we're going to have to work on.

"When you are playing against players with Super League experience like Dean Lawford and David Larder, they're going to punish you every time.

"We've got to learn from this game and pick ourselves up for what is a journey into the unknown next week against Russian side Strela Kazan in the Challenge Cup."

Halifax 42

Keighley Cougars 12

The Cougars were always struggling once they conceded two early tries. Both came as a result of James Rushforth failing to field Halifax kicks, and Larder and Lawford were the beneficiaries.

Lawford adding the conversion to his own try to make it 10-0 after 13 minutes. Four minutes later, Pat Weisner ghosted in, Lawford converted and the Cougars were behind the eight ball at 16-0.

Rushforth made amends for his two early errors by scoring a great try, racing in from halfway after a great pass from Daniel Harvey, Adam Mitchell adding the conversion.

Towards the end of the first half,