IT WAS a good start to the new rugby union league season for Keighley, as they beat fellow newly-promoted side Hullensians 24-7 at home in Counties One Yorkshire.

Keighley dominated possession and territory for long periods of time but found it difficult to break down well-organised, resolute opposition.

For the first 20 minutes of the half, Keighley were camped in Hullensians territory.

With their back row driving the play up field, and some hard running by centre Adam Horsfall they pressured strongly.

However, try as they might, they were unable to get past a superb hard-hitting Hullensians defence.

The pressure did eventually led to a long-range penalty for outside half Alex Brown, whose successful kick opened the scoring for Keighley.

The momentum then swung in Hullensians’ favour.

Their outside half and captain Sam Furbank prompted his troops well, and some hard running from both forwards and backs caused Keighley serious problems, but the defence held strong.

Towards the end of the half, Keighley finally grabbed some breathing space.

A well-practised move gave Keighley’s centre Alan Ebbrell the ball at pace, and taking out the last defender, he slipped the ball to young winger Leon Hobson-Sheriff.

Hobson Sheriff went in to score under the posts, with the try converted by Alex Brown.

The second half was more evenly contested, and was somewhat of an arm wrestle in the midfield.

The stalemate was broken when some inventive play out wide gave mobile Keighley prop Craig Spencer possession.

With the defence expecting him to drive the ball infield, he skilfully moved it to Alex Brown on the loop who scored out wide, before landing the difficult conversion himself.

Hullensians were forced to chase the game, and Furbank used his possession well to expand the play.

Moving the ball wide gave speedy winger Callum Arro chance to gain a lot of ground, and only superb try saving tackles saved the Keighley line.

A good patch of play by Hullensians came to a dramatic halt when a long pass was intercepted on half way by centre Adam Horsfall, who showed a good turn of speed to score under the posts, Brown adding the conversion.

Although the game was in the bag, Hullensians are not the sort of side to give in, and some lovely attacking play ended with a neat show and go from captain Furbank, giving them a well-earned converted try under the posts.

Despite that, it was a deserved victory for Keighley in what is a difficult, well-matched league.

This coming Saturday, they are at home to Wetherby, the other team to get promoted from Yorkshire Two last season alongside Keighley and Hullensians.