IF the Yorkshire Two title race comes down to points difference, then Keighley should be laughing.

The men from Rose Cottage followed up their 100 points against Ripon on January 22 with another club-record league score in their 115-0 home defeat of Thornensians on Saturday.

With four matches left, leaders Keighley have a points difference of plus 546, which is way ahead of second-placed Wetherby (+310 with a game in hand on Keighley) and third-placed Hullensians (+245 with a game in hand on Keighley).

At first, it looked as if the points that Keighley scored would not matter, as Thorne initially conceded victory before kick-off as one of their players was still on his way to the match.

However, his arrival before a scrum took place meant that the match had contested scrums throughout, and therefore referee Scott Houghton-Richards confirmed that the result was a 115-0 victory.

Keighley scored 17 tries, including a penalty try, with hat-tricks for debutant winger Ben Parkinson and replacement Jak Adams, whose treble was also his first tries for the first XV.

Also on the scoresheet were centre Adam Horsfall and full back Alfie Seeley with braces, and there were singles for fly half Alex Brown, No 8 Shaun Minikin, replacement Sam Blakeley, debutant lock Harry Worstead, centre Sean Kelly and winger Kristian Bealey Kay.

Brown added 15 conversions for a personal tally of 35 points.

Keighley’s head coach Dan McGee was a happy man, saying of the match: “It was better than a training session. You cannot compensate for contact, real, live rugby, scrums and lineouts.

“We needed it as we have got a weekend off next week and if we hadn’t had it we would have been a bit rusty going into our last four matches, including Yarnbury and Wetherby.

“Just before the game, Thorne came to us and said, ‘We have 14 men and we need to go to uncontested scrums and concede the match’.

“They didn’t want to delay the match beyond 3pm until their other man arrived but the lads who turned up, it was testament to them that they didn’t give up and played hard all the way through.

“Their lads who played have put pressure on the ones who didn’t.”

What gave McGee most pleasure, however, was his own team’s performance.

He said: “It is hard playing against a team that doesn’t test you, but our skills were good, we kept them out in defence, and they are a big set of lads.

“But the most pleasing thing was our young lads, such as Harry Worstead, who was man of the match, Jak Adams, Ross Lacey and Nathan Pickles.

“Also Ben Parkinson, who has joined us from Wharfedale, scored three tries, Jak Adams scored three tries and Harry also scored.”

Keighley are eight points ahead of Wetherby, who they meet away on April 2, and 12 in front of Hullensians.

Yarnbury and Leeds Corinthians visit Rose Cottage on March 26 and April 9 respectively, before Keighley close their season at Baildon on April 23.

McGee said: “The next three games are important. Yarnbury away is on a similar pitch to ours, and Wetherby could be a clincher and we will hopefully go up as champions.”