Late, late show brings Keighley vital bonus point

Once Lucas Uren had scored Keighley’s second try in the 55th minute, there was little doubt that the hosts would win this competitive SSE Yorkshire Division One derby for a fifth straight triumph.

But the question remained in what is always a tight division, could Graeme Sheffield’s team secure the all-important bonus point for four tries?

With Ribblesdale generally tackling well, Keighley had still only scored two tries when stoppage time was being played in the second half.

Even when replacement Stuart Inman crossed in the 83rd minute, it seemed as if the home side wouldn’t have time to break the whitewash again.

But referee Andrew Scott from Middlesbrough indicated that there were still four minutes left and, urged on by a vociferous home support, skipper Leigh Sugden planted the ball beyond the visitors’ line in the 87th minute to secure the extra point.

And the importance of that score could be seen by the table on Saturday night, prop Paul Sinfield’s razor-sharp mind quickly calculating that after the results had been read out, many of which fell in their favour, Keighley had leapt two places to third.

Without the bonus point, the Utley side would have been fourth but they now trail East Yorkshire duo Bridlington and Driffield by only nine and eight points respectively.

“We can only say that the bonus point was definitely a bonus this time,” said Sheffield afterwards.

“North Ribblesdale played very well in what was a very difficult game for us. We didn’t play particularly well but we have got the result that we wanted.”

Sheffield added: “They didn’t come with anything that we didn’t expect but we thought it was going to be easy and took our eye off the ball once we had gone 10-0 ahead. We tried to run the ball from everywhere on the field.

“We were disappointed that we didn’t get the bonus point the previous week at Scarborough as they are going to be very important in this division but we aren’t halfway through the season and we will see what we can get out of it.”

Alex Brown, restored to fly half, was twice involved in Keighley’s first meaningful attack in the second minute, which ended with left winger Sam Walker being shoved into touch but two minutes later hooker Will Armitage was over for a close-range try, Brown converting.

Ribb were easily winning the penalty count but one given against them in the 13th minute allowed Brown to make it 10-0, Ribblesdale replying with a try by left winger Shane Holmes after full back Simon Chapman had run a kick back with interest.

Brown added a penalty in the 43rd minute, and Uren’s try made the game safe a minute after referee Scott had controversially disallowed an Armitage try, ruling that the Keighley player was held up.

Keighley could not take advantage of veteran Ribb hooker John Thwaite being in the sin-bin, and it took that late, late show for them to garner the full five points, Brown converting Sugden’s final try.