Championship club Keighley Cougars have seen their home game against Dewsbury Rams cancelled due to an unsafe pitch despite a rugby league game taking place on the ground mere hours earlier.
The Cougars were set to host the Rams in a 3:00 pm kick-off with both sides still in the running to make the play-offs of the newly-formed second tier of rugby league, in which ten teams make the play-offs.
News of the game being called off came from the 10th-placed Rams as they took to social media to announce that ‘unsafe pitch’ conditions had forced a cancellation, sparking questions of why the pitch had not been watered.
Dewsbury took to X for their announcement: “Unfortunately due to unsafe pitch conditions the game against Keighley has been cancelled and will have to be rescheduled
“Thank you to all of you who made your way out to the try and support us.”
That post came at 2:35 pm, just 25 minutes before the game was scheduled to kick off with the Cougars offering an update at 3:15 pm.
They posted: “Apologies. The game has been called off.
“Safety concerns has given the ref no choice due to the pitch being too hard.”
The hot weather has understandably left pitches dried out but the Championship clash is the only game in the top two tiers of rugby league in England to be cancelled this week.
Making the decision to call the match off even more bizarre is that the Cougars women’s team had played on the same pitch at 11:00 this morning at Cougar Park.
The temperature has slowly risen throughout the day in Keighley, sitting around 24 degrees at the scheduled kick-off time, but the ground had been deemed fit to play on just four hours earlier.
Both sides will now need to find a new date to play the game.
Apologies.
The game has been called off.
Safety concerns has given the ref no choice due to the pitch being too hard.#rugbyleague #cougars #cougarmania— Keighley Cougars (@Cougarmania) July 12, 2026
