Cutsyke Raiders u-13s 26 Keighley Albion u-13s 8

TRAVELLING to Castleford minus a number of players, Albion found the combative hosts too physical in the first half and, despite a second-half fightback, left themselves too much to do.

Playing down the hill, the visitors' inability to slow the ruck speed of the hosts saw them penned down in their own territory and finally, after a period of pressure, Raiders crossed out wide and tagged on the extras.

From the restart some weak tackling saw Cutsyke’s full back dance his way round a number of would-be tacklers to score.

Despite Albion looking threatening when the ball was moved out wide, with Tyler Moyles cutting some nice lines, the visitors were a distant second best in the hit-ups.

Just before half-time they conceded a third try when their prop forward reached out, in spite of the attention of four Albion players.

Trailing 18-0 at the break, the coaches asked for some fight and this was spearheaded by Riley Corby, Archie Medway and Ben McParland.

After some swift back-line play, Lewis Bloodworth, another standout on the day, was given enough room to ground the ball.

Errors and weak tackling gave Cutsyke position to post another score after a clever kick close to the line but Corby, who was beginning to dominate the opposition pack, took a pass after the ball was moved wide and powered through a number of tacklers to score.

The visitors were on top but were bombing numerous opportunities to score and, in the last five minutes, Cutsyke scored an almost identical try to their fourth to confirm victory.

Corby, Reece Smollen and Josh Dickerson were picked out by the opposition as the top performers for the visitors.

With Albion likely to drop down into Division Three after the grading phase, the team will need to develop a more steely determination to stand up against the sort of tactics they faced in the match.