Wharfedale Devs took on a strong Keighley 2nd XV at Rose Cottage in conditions that suited neither team. Keighley adapted to the conditions better than the Devs resulting in fewer errors. Although Wharfedale controled the lineout and had parity in the scrum Keighley struck first through Jake Hill in the centre. His pace allowed him to chase down a speculative kick through and score.
Keighley went further ahead by again using the pace of their outside centre who scored in the right hand corner.
Wharfedale got on the score board through a well worked try under the posts, when some excellent short passing and support play allowed Luke Craven to score.
With Wharfedale now playing some good rugby led by some strong carries from Jack Kitchen a gap opened for Jonathan Davies to score in the left hand corner.
Half time came with Wharfedale on the front foot and that continued into the second half. Despite being down to 14 men Dale dominated the territorial battle, finishing with another Davies try!!!
With the game tightly balanced at 27-24 Wharfedale again left big holes in midfield. The Keighley centres both running in tries from their own half!!!
The try of the day came from Tom Oakes who finished off a well worked move involving both backs and forwards and ending with Oaksey touching down with a neat dive in the corner.
Sadly, a controversial try from Keighley finished Wharfedale off and resulted in a final score line of 41-24 to Keighley.
Team: – 1 Walker, 2 Stubbs, 3 Dickinson, 4 Bowers, 5 Colgrave, 6 Lawn, 7 Craven, 8 Kitchen, 9 Marshall, 10 Davies,11 White, 12 Bromley, 13 Rogers, 14 Oakes,15 Arkers.
Replacements: – 16 Charlton,17 Wade, 18. Swiss,20. Moorehouse, 21. Stockdale .