Leeds club on brink of promotion: Hunslet RLFC win League One final
Hunslet RLFC are one win away from a place in the Betfred Championship.
The south Leeds club will visit Swinton Lions - who finished 12th in the second-tier - next Sunday for a promotion/relegation shootout after stunning hosts Keighley Cougars 20-6 in today’s (Sunday) League One play-off final.
Cougars were hot favourites after finishing second in the table, two places and five points ahead of Hunslet and winning three of the sides’ four meetings earlier in the campaign.
But the Parksiders backed up last week’s win at third-placed Rochdale Hornets with another outstanding display, based on rock-solid defence under heavy pressure and clinical finishing. Tries by Ethan Wood and ex-Leeds Rhinos reserves player Mackenzie Turner, plus a conversion and penalty from Matty Beharrell, gave them a 12-0 lead.
George Flanagan Senior pulled a try back midway through the second half, improved by Jack Miller, but Beharrell landed penalty goals either side of a superb acrobatic touchdown by Jack Render to seal the win.
Flanagan Senior - whose son George Junior was at full-back for Hunslet - was sin-binned in the first half and Cougars finished with 12 men after Lewis Hatton was sent-off in the closing stages.
Cougars coach Dean Muir said: “I’m really happy. We really worked hard and turned up for each other. I thought we were the better team and rightly got the win.”