MATCH REPORT: KEIGHLEY COUGARS 7 - 6 MIDLANDS HURRICANES - 1895 CUP SECOND PRELIMINARY ROUND

Matty Chrimes is wrapped up by veteran Junior Sa’u (Credit: Keighley Cougars)

Canes bow out of cup competition following Farrell drop-goal

The Canes made the trip to Cougar Park yesterday to take on a Keighley Cougars side who will be one of the favourites to make the Super 8’s at the end of the Betfred League One season. The reward for the winning team would be advancing to the First Round Proper of the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup and facing Featherstone Rovers at Post Office Road in two weeks. Whilst the Cougars had received a bye into the Second Preliminary Round, the Canes had earned their spot in Sunday’s fixture following a dominant 52-24 victory over Whitehaven at The Alexander Stadium two weeks ago.

Head Coach Mark Dunning’s Canes went into this game knowing it was their fifth pre-season game and fourth game in as many weeks. Mark - with one eye on this Sunday’s Betfred League One visit to Goole Vikings - took this game as an opportunity to rest numerous players who will undoubtedly have been battered and bruised from the prior cup fixtures. Pre-season regulars like Todd Horner, Jon-Luke Kirby, Danny Barcoe, Mikey Wood, Aiden Roden, Zeus Silk and Matty Hanley were all rested completely, whilst Ethan Newboult was rewarded with his first professional appearance at hooker with player/coach Chris Cullimore as backup on the bench. Sullivan Medforth replaced Jake Sweeting in the halves with Callum McLelland, with Sweets moving to the bench so the spine could be rotated throughout.

There were two other special mentions for this rotated Canes squad - the first was Ross Oakes who made his 150th career appearance (just under 90% of his appearances coming from a lengthy stint at Bradford Bulls followed by a period at Sheffield Eagles). The second was the introduction of Eligh Wilkinson - the younger brother of Tom Wilkinson - with the 17-year old winger joining the club on trial for this fixture. Eligh - who arrived from West Hull ARLFC - had already navigated an action-packed start to 2025 as he featured on the wing for the West Hull squad that faced a strong St Helens side in the Third Round of the Challenge Cup.

The game started fairly evenly, however the Canes first real attack on the Cougars line took less than five minutes to materialise. Whilst the set initially looked promising, a scrappy ruck saw us cough up possession just ten metres out. Just over five minutes later, the Cougars opened the scoring as a good attacking set saw them within a few metres of the Canes line. Spotting a gap in the left-hand corner, Izaac Farrell launched a high looping pass to winger Brad Holroyd who dotted the ball down untouched (4-0). Farrell was, however, unable to add the extras from out wide. The Cougars maintained their pressure on the Canes as they forced Matty Chrimes to concede a goal-line drop-out shortly after he collected a Farrell bomb, but the Midlands defence held firm and forced a Cougars knock-on.

As the game moved into the second quarter, the Canes had a brief opportunity to attack as Eligh Wilkinson earned the Canes a penalty as the Cougars were caught offside chasing the kick he gathered. That penalty and set saw the ball move from left to right as the Canes found themselves 15 metres out, however a well-intentioned pass from Ross Oakes to Joe Hartley was telegraphed as Junior Sa’u clocked the Hunslet loanee and bundled him into touch. From the resulting set the Cougars fans were convinced they had earned themselves a second try, but the referee was quick to dispel those hopes as some resolute defending resulted in a handover to the visitors.

As we entered the final ten minutes, the Cougars pressure continued to pile on but the Canes refused to give up more points and frustrated a persistent Keighley side. That defending was rewarded with the Midlands enjoying their most dominant spell in the first half, with the Canes coming within five metres of the hosts line before a Marcus Green offload was deemed to be a knock-on. In the final seconds of the game the Canes looked certain to score as Ross Oakes passed out wide to Joe Hartley who was in space, however a well-placed hand by Brad Holroyd denied the Canes what would have been an almost certain try.

Half-time: Keighley Cougars 4 - 0 Midlands Hurricanes

Despite likely going into the sheds the most tired after some continuous defending, it was the Canes who came out firing in the opening ten minutes of the second half. Just six minutes in, Matty Chrimes looked to have levelled the scores following some hands from left to right, however as he slid over the referee blew his whistle and pulled back play for an obstruction in the build-up. The Canes luck would change just two minutes later however, as the following set saw player/coach Chris Cullimore with an opportunity to scoot from dummy half and barge over despite the efforts of three Cougars defenders (4-4). Medforth was on hand to add the extras from left of the sticks, and the Canes found themselves ahead by just two points (4-6).

Just under then minutes later, the Cougars found themselves with an opportunity to level the scores as the Canes conceded a penalty 20 metres out in front of the posts. Despite having all of the momentum and the opportunity to add four-to-six points, Izaac Farrell opted for the kicking tee and slotted an easy two-points to even the scoreboard (6-6). The Canes bounced back with a strong attacking set in the Cougars half, but trialist Eligh Wilkinson was unable to deal with a fast offload from Ryan Johnson 15 metres from the hosts try-line and the visitors momentum fell away.

With just over ten minutes to go, the Cougars managed to make a scrappy attacking set pay off as a kick from the half-way line was punted behind Chrimes, who was forced to knock the ball out and concede a goal-line drop-out. From the resulting set, Izaac Farrell eventually found himself in plenty of space to kick a drop-goal in front of the sticks from about 10 metres out (7-6).

With the clock ticking down, the Cougars adopted an unsurprisingly slow and time consuming approach to the final minutes and aimed to punt the ball into touch at the end of every set. The Canes did their best to get themselves in position to level the scores or pinch a victory at the death, but the best effort saw a Jake Sweeting bomb bounce out behind the dead-ball line and an ambitious but speculative drop-goal attempt from behind the half-way line whizzed short and wide of the mark just before the final hooter rang out.

Whilst Head Coach Mark Dunning would never celebrate a loss, he admitted he had gotten a lot out of those 80 minutes and had determined that a number of players had put their hands up ahead of a selection headache for next week’s Betfred League One opener against Goole Vikings.

Full-time: Keighley Cougars 7 - 6 Midlands Hurricanes

Man of the Match:
Matty Chrimes (Sponsored by Lowry Recruitment)

Try-scorers:
Cullimore

Conversions:
Medforth

Scoring sequence:
4-0, 4-4, 4-6, 6-6 and 7-6.