Wests took the 18 mile two hour journey to Keighley this week in search of a first away league win this season. Spirits were high with new water bottles on show, expertly demonstrated by coach Andy Neave.

The opening exchanges were frantic, with the first twenty minutes being played at a fast pace by both sides, or so it felt anyway. Keighley had the best of the opening phases running hard and taking play in to the WL 22, were an infringement gave them an early 3-0 lead.

A high tackle saw Keighley with a man in the bin and gave Wests a lineout in the home 22. A driving maul was stopped short, but the ball was spun wide for the (almost) birthday boy Sam Marshall to finish expertly in the corner, wrong footing a few defenders – Keir excellently converted. 3-7

It was try time again moments later when Sam Neave dodged an onrushing buffalo to ship the ball out wide for Sam Marshall to again cross in the corner. Keir Breakwell again adding the extras. 3-14.

Keighley had seen another man sent to the bin for some sort of cheating and Wests used the opportunity to kick to the corner, set up a driving maul and cross the line with Rabb Watt touching down for his second try of the season. Keir decided to miss this kick. 3-19.

Keighley had been mixing up their kick-offs and this time picked out Prime Time Dan Thomson, who gracefully collected the ball and made 50m before being stopped. Another Keighley infringement gave Wests a lineout a few metres out and a maul was set up again, Rab had the ball at the back again and WL were trucking to the line before the maul was stopped illegally and a penalty try awarded. 3-26.

Half-Time

From kick-off the flight of the ball was expertly judged by an unknown forward, and noting the success we’d had a the lineout, the ball was ‘left’ to give WL a lineout on the 10m line. The opening exchanges were similar to the first 15 minutes of the first half with both sides struggling to get a foothold on the game.

This was until Eliah Chitiyo was finally given the ball in a bit of space, fresh from 10 days of drinking at freshers he was looking a bit sluggish as he managed to only be proper quick this week as he outpaced the defence and scooted round under the posts. Keir kicked this one. 3-33.

Wests looked to have scored moments later when a driving maul was again illegally disrupted and the forwards set about pick and going, several went close before not-prime time Dan Baxter powered over the line, but the ref was unable to see the grounding – for what its worth I definitely scored. WL again went close when James Myerscough broke the line, running so fast his hamstring fell off and the chance went begging.

The away side were not kept out for long though as Jamie Cockin in at first receiver identified a mismatch, shipping on to the Ponte Speedster himself Lewis Bromley to break the line, leaving bodies littering the field, with only one man able to keep up. Lewis expertly drew the obviously terrified last defender before shipping on to the Scottish try machine Rab Watt who completed his brace. 3-40.

Lewis did manage to keep up his reputation as the card machine when he was sent to the bin for giving away three penalties in as many minutes.

A final score for WL was to follow, again from a driving maul, with Tim Pickersgill spotting a gap off to the side and breaking to dot down for his first try of the season. 3-45.

Full Time – Keighley 3 – 45 West Leeds

Man of the match was Rabb Watt for a ceremonial hattrick, even if only two counted. A solid performance by WL for 80 minutes for the first time in a while. John the scrum went away happy with a few driving maul trys, solid scrums although we have concerns as he said he had blood in somewhere.

The game was very well reffed throughout, with other points of note including – the under 8s being cancelled, 7 guys one quip and the shower being so hot that Jake Barnett’s body melted.