Keighley Cougars 70 Oxford RL 10

COUGARS eased to victory over Oxford for the second week in succession to record their third League One victory of the season.

After knocking the expansion side out of the iPro Cup quarter-finals the previous week, Keighley ran in 13 tries to remain fourth in the early standings.

Assistant coach Adam Mitchell said: “It was like a training run for us and we knew what to expect from them after playing them last weekend, so the focus was on us to be clinical and professional.

“We had a specific game plan which was different to the way we played in the previous game against them. This week we wanted to get round them instead of going through them and we worked on it in training all week and it paid off.

“We had a few of the fringe players in last week, and they did impress enough to probably credit a start this week too, but we brought back in the experienced boys.

“Paul Handforth and Ritchie Hawkyard were outstanding. Tiger (Handforth) came back and did a job, scoring a hat-trick, but for me Ritchie is absolutely phenomenal for his size and is extremely hard to tackle one-on-one.

“We now move on to the All Golds who are the best of the southern sides in the division. It’s mine and Marchy’s job to prepare the lads well this week in training and make sure come 3pm on Sunday we repeat this performance.”

Cougars took the lead after just three minutes when Ritchie Hawkyard weaved his way through for a great solo try.

Paul March’s side then scored two tries in three minutes, with Handforth first offloading under pressure to send Jode Sheriffe crashing over on his return from his 10-month injury lay-off before he broke through the Oxford line to send Darren Hawkyard in for the score.

Oxford got themselves on the scoreboard shortly before the quarter-mark when Casey Canterbury turned his way through a tackle from the play-the-ball to touch down in a carbon copy of his try the previous week.

Handforth continued to be a thorn in the visitors' side and, following great work by Vinny Finigan, threw a dummy before getting his outstretched arm over the line.

He produced another assist when he sent Darren Hawkyard over for his second after racing through the Oxford line.

Handforth completed his dominant first half with his second of the afternoon as he touched down on the back of breaks from James Feather and Ross Peltier, with the latter providing the assist.

The second half continued the theme of the first as Handforth ran Oxford ragged and bagged himself a hat-trick four minutes in as he raced through space to score on the back of a scrum.

After an Ash Lindsay break, it was that man Handforth again to the fore as his kick over the top on the last was fantastically brought down for a try by Paul White.

Despite temporarily losing Adam Brook to concussion and Rikki Sheriffe to a shoulder injury, the Cougars extended the lead further when Brendon Rawlins raced over with a lovely sidestep to round former Keighley full back James Craven, playing on dual registration from Batley.

Another dual-reg player, centre Zack McComb, scored Oxford's consolation in the second half, pouncing on Marcus Brooker’s clever grubber into the in-goal area.

However, Cougars blew Oxford away in the game’s final ten minutes, with Scott Law powering over from a free play before Ritchie Hawkyard squeezed over for his second, exposing defensive frailties to create himself the room.

Finigan completed the rout with two tries in as many minutes – first picking Brook’s cross-field kick out of the air before racing 30 metres to dive over on the back of Lindsay’s break from the restart.

COUGARS: R Hawkyard 10; Finigan 8; Martin 7; R Sheriffe 8; White 8; Brook 8; Handforth 10; Law 8; Feather 9; Jode Sheriffe 8; Oakes 8; D Hawkyard 8; Rawlins 8. Subs: Lynam 7; Lindsay 8; Bailey 8; Peltier 8.

OXFORD: Craven 5; McAllister 5; McComb 5; Burnett 5; Matthews 5; Kitson 5; Brooker 6; Hesketh 5; Canterbury 5; Thomas 5; Igbinedion 5; Hoggins 5; Allan 5. Subs: Nathaniel 5; Greene 5; Haslem 5; Ford 5.