Cougars tie-up is fruitful for Bees

3:16pm Thursday 30th October 2008

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Bradford & Bingley are likely to include former Keighley Cougars player Karl Smith in their squad for Saturday's National League Three North match at Preston Grasshoppers.

Bees secretary Nick Patterson said: “We had a good report on Karl from our second-team match against Yarnbury.

“Also impressing was fellow centre James McBurnie, who we signed from Ilkley during the close season but who has been injured.

“They might not ncessarily start but both should be in the squad.”

Patterson added: “We haven’t an actual partnership with the Cougars but we would like to develop one.

“We played them in a cross-code challenge recently and we have sent them players who are interested in league, such as Richard Tafa, while they have sent us players who are interested in having a go at union.”

Into the latter category comes another former Cougar Marco Ferrazano, who, as he is a prop, is being given a little longer to acclimatise to the different rules.

The Bees, who lost 44-23 at Loughborough Students last weekend, suffered from injuries and their own errors.

Patterson said: “We turned the ball over five times and if we had kept the game tighter we would have made things a lot closer if not actually won.”