Keighley 2nd XV 13 Otley 2nd/3rd XV 15 - Keighley were unable to beat this workman like team from Otley who had just too much pace in the middle backs and in the backrow forwards. Due to the cost of professionalism at Otley they now are only able to have three teams each weekend as the club would seem to revolve purely around the 1st team squad. So Keighley were playing a team made up of a mixture of second and third players.
The Keighley backs did not look as fluent as they were the previous week and poor handling was to be their downfall in the first half. Slow ball out into the middle backs gave the Otley centres chance to snuffle out any chance of a Keighley attack. Otley scored their first try when a ball was spilled by Keighley. One of Otley's centres swept up the ball at pace and easily out paced the covering would be tacklers to score under the posts. Keighley's forwards worked hard to make ground with the backrow of Midgley, Wright and Gibson leading the way. Brady Godfrey kicked a penalty goal to put Keighley on the scoreboard, but the likelihood of try by Keighley was always in doubt. The ball was lost too many times in the tackles for the Keighley attacks to be effective. Just before half time Otley went further ahead with a penalty goal.
Keighley turned up the pace early in the second half with some good running by the forwards. With Godfrey at scrum half he was making some snipping runs down the sides of the rucks and mauls and bringing the forwards on to some excellent short passes. Godfrey kicked a second penalty to bring Keighley within striking distance of the Otley score. Then Keighley were caught knapping and Otley through a quickly taken penalty were camped in the right hand corner and after defending well against some strong drives one of their backrow forwards pushed the ball through a melee of players to claim a try in the corner. The goal was missed, but Keighley now needed a converted try and at least a penalty to get back in front.
Richard Cavender absent due to injury for four weeks was introduced at stand off, and is probing runs and passing seemed to give the Keighley backs more room. A certain try seemed to on the cards when the ball went to the right and then quickly back left but it was a case of too many players filling the space on the left and the chance went begging when two Keighley players collided with each other. At last Keighley scored an excellent try when Cavender gave a short pass to John Hinchliffe who tore through the would be tacklers to score under the posts. Godfrey easily added the extra two points. One of the would be tacklers was the Otley hooker who injured a knee and was unable to continue, and with no front row replacement the referee decreed that all scrums would now be contested. With time running out for Keighley they were unable to gain enough momentum to progress into the Otley twenty two to try win a penalty or have the chance to drop a goal, and due to the uncontested scrums the game fizzled out like a damp squid.
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