Dewsbury Rams Reserves 42 Keighley Cougars Reserves 22

COUGARS reserves fell to defeat after a shambolic second-half performance.

Despite Keighley having the lead three times, the Rams ended up chalking up a comfortable victory, much to the displeasure of coach Scott Lindsey.

He said: “We thought we’d won the game after the first ten minutes and the performance just simply wasn’t good enough and well beneath the standards I set for this team.

“The lads will be getting a flogging in training as for me it is obvious we have a lot of work to do before our next fixture away at Warrington in a fortnight’s time.”

Lindsey’s side raced into an early ten-point lead through an Aaron Nicholson brace as the second-row forward first powered over from short range before racing through the Rams line to cross.

The hosts got on the scoreboard after 15 minutes when hooker Billy Yarrow squeezed over from close range from the play-the-ball.

The weather continued to worsen as an Alfie Seeley bomb into the driving wind was spilt by Joe Barron and debutant Iliass Laachiri kicked the ball on for Aiden Scully to pounce and restore the ten-point advantage.

Barron redeemed himself minutes later as he touched down a cross-field kick before James Thornton used his strength to get through and score to give Dewsbury the half-time lead.

Cougars were back in front when Josh Hunt scored after a great individual effort but that was as good as it got as the Rams raced in four unanswered tries.

Reece Trout crossed as he burst through two would-be tacklers to score before Dominic Kudangirana walked the ball home unchallenged in the corner ten minutes later.

Brad Adams put the result beyond doubt five minutes from time as he strolled through a bus-sized gap with Kudangirana then scoring his second of the evening in a carbon copy of his first try as he strolled over in the right-hand corner.