Crusaders 2nd 13 Old Brodleians 56 - The Crusaders were well beaten in this game due to lack of fitness and tackling. The game started well for the Keighley side with the forwards combining well and supporting any run which was made by one of their team members. They were playing a rather simple game as demanded by captain Jeff Inman. Taking the ball to ground when tackled and allowing a support player to pick up and drive the ball further down the field. This type of play created a penalty for the Crusaders which was duly kicked by Duncan Grant. At this moment there was no indication of what was to come from the Brodleians team. Their first attack was well contained by the Crusaders defence and progress was made back down into the Brodleians half of the field. The Crusaders were struggling to win their own lineout ball as they had a pack which did not contain a specialist lineout man. This problem allowed the visitors additional ball from set pieces. With this amount of ball the more experienced Brodleians backs started to cause panic amongst the Keighley side. With the speed of one the Brods backrow who has played on the wing for their senior side he had too much pace for the Crusaders and scored three tries in the first half, all of which were converted by their scrum half. This giving the visitors 18 points lead at the interval.

Inman had to lift the spirits of his team at half time and for the first five minutes the stern words and encouragement seemed to have had effect, with Keighley starting as they had in the first half. Brodleians then extended their lead when they latched on to a handling mistake by Keighley to score a further try; which was converted. Keighley at last added to their three points when Andy Hoppe scored a try after following up a kick down the field. Grant could not convert the try. The Brodleians then turned up the heat again and due to good play and strong running scored a further four tries, all being converted. The Crusaders had the final say when after a series of attacks saw one of their colt players Morgan Bailey crossing to score a try; again Grant was unable to convert the try.

The only consolation of the score was that hopefully the younger players will have learned something from the way the opposition played and that they now realise how important strong tackling is to win games and that running with the ball is only part of the game.

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