Keighley 33 Moortown 19

Keighley beat Moortown in the second round of the Yorkshire Shield on Saturday at Utley.

Although Moortown are two divisions below Keighley, they are used to winning, hence their position at the top of their league.

The early exchanges were entertaining, as both teams set out to move the ball around.

However, Keighley quickly realised that the Moortown backs were very sharp, especially at outside half where Jack Lewis appeared to have more than enough time for decision making.

Their intent was obvious - move the ball wide at every opportunity, away from Keighley's big forwards.

Keighley countered by starving them of quality ball through consistent pressure up front. After 14 minutes, good driving play and slick inter-passing between Warren Knowles and Kevin Bottomley gave captain Rob Ellis a score in the corner, which was converted by Alex Brown.

Keighley eased off and Moortown took advantage, and within five minutes they were on the scoreboard. Young winger Don Grey noticed the gaps behind the Keighley defence and a quick controlled chip and chase led to a try in the corner.

The remainder of the half saw Keighley turn the screw' up front. They were dominant in the scrums and at the breakdown.

The workaholic back row of Ellis, Andy Bennett and Leigh Sugden once again cut down the opposition's attacking options and took the ball at pace into their overworked defence.

For all their possession Keighley tried too hard to kill the game off, which resulted in some sloppy handling and poor decision making.

In the second half Keighley forwards Rob Clarke and Paul Sinfield were in amongst the backs driving at defenders, which allowed more space out wide.

Five minutes into the half back play led to a well-taken try in the corner for centre Adam Balderstone.

Although Moortown struggled in the forward exchanges their line-out was working perfectly.

In an attempt to counter this threat Sugden fell foul of repeated infringement and was sin-binned. This was just the incentive Moortown needed, a sweeping break by live wire scrum half Toby Mann brought a try that was converted by centre Gareth Lim.

With the scores level at 12-12 Keighley made some changes.

Experienced campaigners Michael Feather and Richard Leach were brought on to freshen the forwards, Danny Lester came in at the wing which meant that big Nigel Curr could move to centre and Balderstone could revert to his preferred position of scrum half.

The changes made an immediate impact. Balderstone received the ball at the back of a strong scrum on the opposition 22-metre line, dummied to pass and strolled over under the posts. Brown converted the try.

The pressure began to tell. Ellis, who had played superbly throughout the game, used his power and pace to stretch the lead, with a fine try, converted by Brown.

Unfortunately for Keighley, Moortown were determined to fight to the last. Their strong centre Gareth Lim, who had been a thorn in the side all afternoon, broke through some mediocre tackling to give hooker Richard Hume an easy run in, which was converted by Lim.

In the final stages of the game Keighley's Robert Wilkinson carved up the defence to put Curr through. Curr cut inside and scored with two defenders on his back, allowing Brown the easier conversion.

In the next round of the Shield Keighley have a difficult home fixture against Bradford Salem on April 5.