Widnes Vikings 72, Keighley Cougars 10

Keighley Cougars’ thumping defeat to Widnes has highlighted the need for unity, according to boss Barry Eaton.

Already at a disadvantage, having been deducted nine points for entering administration, the Cougars started the new Championship campaign in the worst possible manner.

Eaton insists the problems arising from the heavy loss can be solved but knows team spirit and togetherness will be crucial to their chances of survival.

“It’s not something that can’t be fixed, that’s one positive,” he said.

“We’ve made errors time and time again that we prepared for in training but we’ve gone and done the wrong thing too many times and that has led to us leaving gaps for them to exploit.

“That’s the disappointing thing about this game but we will be able to fix the problems.

“One thing it does emphasise is that we need to be unified and play as a team.

“You can’t make impulsive decisions against quality opposition and get away with it the way you could in Championship One.

“We were creating opportunities for them to score tries, rather than them necessarily creating the chances themselves.”

The Cougars had been 28-0 down within half an hour at Widnes, conceding tries to Matthew Gardner, Dean Thompson, Dave Allen, Lee Farrell and Shane Grady, who also kicked four goals.

Gav Duffy touched down on 34 minutes to get the Cougars on the scoreboard, Danny Jones converting, but Grady added another try and conversion to make it 34-6 at the break.

It only got worse in the second half, Grady and Thompson both completing hat-tricks, while Thomas Coyle, Richard Varkulis, Anthony Thackeray and Scott Yates also crossed.

Grady also kicked five goals to take his personal points tally to 32 and Tom Moss mustered the only try of the second period for Keighley.

Unsurprisingly, defensive structure is a major area for work on the training ground.

“That’s one thing we are going to be working heavily on,” said Eaton.

“There’s times you are always going to be under pressure defensively but it’s how you deal with it.

“If you deal with it collectively, you will come out of the other side well.”