Rochdale Hornets 10, Cougars 30 - A SPARKLING five minute display backed up by rock solid defence put Cougars back on the victory trail against an enthusiastic Hornets side.

Three tries were packed into a short, but breathtaking, period of play in which the Keighley wing men ran riot, but then they had to really tough it out as Rochdale piled on the pressure for long periods.

The game itself was wrecked as an entertaining spectacle by the refusal of referee Peter Taberner to tide up the play-the-ball and enforce the offside rule. Time and again Rochdale were allowed to slow the play down and once again coach Karl Harrison was furious with the standard of refereeing.

"Our game is based on the speed of the play the ball, and that speed allows us the play football. But the referee only allowed one ream to play football, he allowed Rochdale to spoil our game," he declared.

The home players repeatedly dropped on top of a tackle which had already been completed, and referee Taberner only penalised the move once. Ironically it was Jason Lee who was punished with just 10 minutes to go, and that decision was questionable.

So the Cougars had to do it the tough way, and they didn't disappoint. Steve Hall and Alan Boothroyd took the ball forward, ably supported by Jason Ramshaw and Danny Seal who were both quite magnificent. Seal showed his versatility, starting at loose forward, but ended up playing at centre for the sin-binned Karl Smith and at full back for the blood-binned Jamie Rushforth. It was from full back he raced 60 metres to set up the penultimate try for Martin Wood.

Cougars looked a little tentative in the opening minutes before unleashing a stunning onslaught which brought three tires in five minutes. The first came off a long bouncing pass from Ramshaw. Jason Lee collected and accelerated 50 metres to the posts.

From the kick off Keighley scored an almost identical second. Martin wood put Dean Hanger through a narrow gap just inside his own half. He raced forward, dummied to offload and accelerated to the line but this time it was too wide for Wood to add the extra points.

The third try again came from the re-start, this time Keighley cut it down the right. Paul Harrison put Karl smith away and the centre raced forward, drew the defence and sent Craig Horne over from 30 metres out.

Keighley looked to be coasting, but a couple of errors let the home side back into the game. Hanger dropped a poor pass near his own line and four plays later Dane Dorahy put Darrell Derose over with ease.

If there was a turning point it came on the half hour. Marlon Miller broke from his own line, found Dorahy who slipped the ball back to Miller. He looked certain to score before being hauled down by Ramshaw and Smith who had got back 90 meters to prevent the score.

Cougars pulled further ahead on the stroke of half time when Hanger took a pass from Wood and flew home under the posts from 30 metres out. Wood's simple conversion made it 20-6 at the break.

Harrison's side had to wait 29 minutes before bagging their next points, and in the intervening period had to tackle like demons. Paul Owen and Smith came under intense pressure and both defended superbly, Smith unlucky to be sin-binned for obstruction. But even down to 12 men the Cougars held firm and stayed patient to score with two Ramshaw inspired tries.

Seal's long range break set up the first, Ramshaw's inside pass creating the gap for Wood to race 15 metres to score. With five minutes left a smart Ramshaw dummy send Nathan Antonik through and he found Matt Walker who finished off with a flourish. Wood converted and the tame was finally in the bag.

Rochdale scored an injury time consolation try with Miller again breaking from deep. Although he was superbly caught by Lee, his break allowed Sean Cooper to race in at the corner.

The victory said a lot for Harrison's coaching. Against Doncaster they forced the pass when winning, and it cost them the game. This match was patience personified coupled with a never-say-die attitude which was personified by Ramshaw - I don't think even he will know how he managed to get back to make that first half tackle.

Rochdale: Maher, Miller, Cooper, Newall, Green, Demetriou, Dorahy, Ireland, Waring, Prest, Bunce, Derost, McKinny. Subs(all used): Ashton, Cameron, Martindale, Simpson.

Cougars: Rushforth, Horn, Smith, Hanger, Lee, Seal, Antonik, Hall, Ramshaw, Slicker, Harrison, Hughes, Wood. Subs (all used): Owen, Walker, Boothroyd, Pickles.

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