Keighley Cougars 28 Doncaster 44

KEIGHLEY Cougars suffered a defeat in their first home league match as Doncaster made the short journey back to South Yorkshire with the two points.

The Cougars got off to the perfect start when Ritchie Hawkyard got the offload away to Paul White who dived over in the corner for a try in the third minute.

However, despite consecutive sets on the Dons' line, the visitors first attacking set brought with it a reply as Jansin Turgut switched direction late on the pass, dragging Andy Gabriel off his wing to allow Louis Sheriff to touch down.

And the visitors extended their early lead to six points when Tom Carr made his way cross field before offloading to Liam Welham who put his brother Matty in for the try.

A fiercely contested opening quarter saw Cougars score their second to get back within two points. Hamish Barnes showed great strength to squeeze his outstretched arm over the line after Cougars were awarded a penalty for a shoulder charge on Paul Handforth.

Reece Dean extended Gary Thornton’s side's lead in the 22nd minute when Makali Aizue’s dummy run opened up the space for the half back to go over next to the uprights. From the restart, Dean raced in behind the posts following a break from Aizue.

Barnes crossed for his second of the afternoon when he raced through a gap in the defensive line to dive over after great work to get the ball in his hands from Hawkyard.

However, the Cougars were fragile in defence and after a missed tackle, Aizue broke once more and offloaded to Jordie Hedges who skipped through Handforth’s attempted tackle to go over for the Dons' fifth try of the half.

But, March’s side got the final score moments before the hooter when Handforth’s grubber came back off the post and Aaron Ollett pounced for the try.

The Cougars also opened the second half scoring when Carr’s kick bounced kindly to White who raced 60 metres to score his second try.

Doncaster held out despite Keighley pressure on the line and in the 52nd minutes a curling grubber on the last tackle by Hedges was touched down by Mason Tonks.

When Hedges offloaded for Zac Braham to score a try with 15 minutes to go the game was effectively over as a contest.

There was a brief moment of joy for Cougars when Ross Peltier powered over from close range however the final say went to Doncaster when Matty Welham scored his second of the afternoon just before the final hooter.