Cougars 18, Featherstone 20

A great game to end a poor home season reflected the frustrations of the campaign perfectly.

The ability was there for all to see, yet the team were unable to follow through and yet another one of oh-so-many possible victories was allowed to slip through the Cougar claws.

Lee Crooks is new to the coaching game and must really be wondering what he has to do to get his side to play consistently for 80 minutes, let alone two matches.

There were one or two people grumbling about Crooks' substitutions once the Cougars had gone 18-4 ahead in the 56th minute, and there was a visible effect on the team when Christian Tyrer was replaced, but they are well paid sportsmen who should have been able to kill the game off at that point.

Instead eight unprofessional minutes saw Rovers run in three tries and then do exactly what the Cougars should have done, shut up shop.

To be fair this was one of the better performance of the second half of the season for all but those terrible eight minutes. At times the Cougars played some great rugby, the wing combination of Jason Lee and Jason Laurence looked top quality, Brock McDonald was simply outstanding, the pack all made good, quick yardage and Chris Robinson showed potential in a new role at hooker.

But once again they were let down by missed kicks. Jamie Benn had a tough night mainly from the touchline, but at four tries each the difference between the two sides proved to be two Rovers conversions to one for the Cougars.

The first half saw Keighley impress and great crossfield handling first one way then the other saw Jason Ramshaw send Laurence racing in for his sixth try in as many games.

Then came an enforced break of 15 minutes. Rovers centre Davy Kimmel went down in an innocuous looking challenge, but came out of it with a compound fracture that needed an ambulance.

After the re-start Keighley soon settled back into the groove, and a now trademark cross kick by Tyrer was collected by leading scorer Lee for the second try.

Although Rovers had really been outplayed, they managed to drag themselves back into the game on the half hour when Danny Baker raced 45 metres to squeeze in at the corner and make the half time score 8-4 to the Cougars.

Keighley really applied the pressure after the interval, and it was Tyrer again who came up trumps a lovely flighted kick into space just behind the Rovers line saw man of the match McDonald rise highest to steal the ball from a shocked Baker, and race in unopposed. Again there was no conversion but Benn did add the extras to the fourth try after he set it up with a lovely run into the line and an even better pass to Lee the Welsh winger doing the rest.

He went close twice shortly afterwards, but Rovers rolled their sleeves up and the unthinkable happened.

Three tries eight minutes and the game was gone. Stewart Dickens forced his way over from close range on the hour. Ty Fallins' high kick was fumbled by Benn, Karl Pratt gratefully scooted over and then in the 68th minute Richard Chapman added insult to injury by dummying his way over from acting half on the Cougar line.

His two earlier conversions were enough to see Rovers home and set up a dog fight for fifth play-off place, which the Cougars will just have to watch.

COUGARS: Ben, Wray, McDonald, Laurence, Lee, Tyrer, Antonik, Hansen, Robinson, S Campbell, Sapatu, M Campbell, Ramshaw. Subs: Longo, Foster, Cain, Smits.

ROVERS: Coventry, Child, Hall, Kimmel, Pratt, Hanley, Fallins, Jackson, Chapman, Dickens, Monie, Lowe, Price. Subs: Stokes, Slater, Clarkson, Baker.

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