Keighley 10 Driffield 0

 Given that a cold wind and stinging rain was whipping across the pitch from down the Aire valley and that the two best defences in the division were on show, this was never going to be a points fest.

But there was much to admire in both sides’ tackling as Keighley strengthened their hold on fourth place, also cutting the deficit behind third-placed Driffield to four points.

However, Keighley’s head coach Dave Lister wouldn’t go so far as to say that this was his side’s stand-out defensive display of the season, despite them being on the wrong end of a 22-5 penalty count.

He said: “It (the defending) is what we expected, and I wasn’t worried when they camped in our right-hand corner in the second half. I was always confident that we would pull through.

“We always thought this was going to be a vital match at the start of the season and we just had to make sure that we maintained our focus.”

Driffield’s former Otley back Robin Kitching – who missed two first-half penalties on a day when no kick at goal was easy – said: “Conditions were difficult but Keighley played well and, unfortunately, wanted it more than us.”

Keighley thought they had taken the lead in the sixth minute when Alex Brown’s pin-point kick bounced nicely for Danny McGee to touch down but referee Rob Staines ruled that McGee was offside.

However, they went into half-time ahead as fly half Brown kicked a 39th-minute penalty after Driffield were offside in front of their posts, Scott Dyson showing finger-tip control to hold the ball so it didn’t blow off the kicking tee.

Keighley seemed to spend the first 20 minutes of the second half defending deep inside their own 22 but when the siege was finally relieved, they broke away to get the sole try in the 67th minute.

From a set move, Ferrazz-ano burst through the middle and the Anglo-Italian ran strongly to crash over from 35 metres out, Brown’s conversion making it 10-0.