Crusaders 2nd XV ran out of time to win this game. The game was played in windy conditions on a pitch with a slope requiring a four wheel drive gear box.
Jeff Inman won the toss and decided to face the wind and the slope. The problem for the Crusaders was obvious in the first few minutes in that some of his team had not read the script and that they were supposed to defend their line no matter what the cost was to their bodies. Brodleians went ahead with a penalty in front of the posts and the ball would have rolled down into Brighouse with the following wind, but for a dry stone wall.
The next problem was that Keighley could not kick the ball the required 10 metres at the restart kick off. From the ensuing scrum the Brods backs were soon pressing on the Keighley line and when the ball was fed out to the right wing the wingman's pace was too much for the Crusaders, but he scored too far out for the try to be converted.
The same winger looked as if he would score again but a good cover tackle by Matthew Gaffney, coming across from the opposite wing, saved a certain try. Then the Crusaders, after working hard to clear their line, let Brods in for their second try when lack of tackling was in evidence. Again the try was not converted.
The Crusaders were not making much head way into the opposition's half, and at last good forward play by Morgan, Sugden and Inman took the ball to within yards of the Brods try line but the continuity failed at the last moment. Brods cleared their line with a long kick down field. Keighley then let Brods in for their third try again. The tackling was woeful, and strong words were spoken at half-time by Inman about the defence. This try was converted so giving the Brods a twenty point lead. Twelve of which were due to poor defence at the interval.
The Crusaders had a lot of work to do to claw back this lead. Brods had learned from the Crusaders' mistakes and they were prepared from the whistle to run everything at the Crusaders. It took ten minutes before the Crusaders scored and this was through a penalty kicked by Simon Atkin. The same player doubled Keighley's total with a second penalty. Captain Jeff Inman was quite prepared to eat away at the deficit with these penalty kicks. At last the Crusaders scored a try when after sustained pressure on the Brodleians try line when Matthew Gaffney crossed for a try in the corner. Atkin was unable to convert the try.
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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