"WE can't complain about the pitch," laughed veteran front-rower John Thwaite after his North Ribblesdale team had been the first visitors to use Keighley's artificial grass pitch and lost 50-7.

A seventh straight defeat left Ribb still bottom of the table, with just the losing bonus point that they had earned in a 13-9 setback at Wheatley Hills on the opening day of the season.

However, Thwaite is far from despondent as they prepare to face Selby on Saturday at Grove Park.

He said: "We were missing two players at Sam Boatwright's wedding blessing on Saturday and we were missing five players the week before at James Dugdale's wedding.

"We have a players' meeting coming up. It is not a crisis meeting, it is just a meeting to see whether we are heading in the right direction and to see if anything needs changing.

"But we are a young side, the spirit is good and I have known the spirit having been worse when we have been winning."

Not even the remnants of Storm Brian could prevent Keighley from christening their artificial grass pitch in style.

They ran in eight tries, five of which were converted by fly half Alex Brown, against understrength visitors.