ts been an interesting few weeks since I last wrote programme notes so I didn’t want to let the opportunity go without making reference to a few things as we welcome our old foes and local rivals Pontefract in what is our penultimate home game of the 2018/19 season.

I along with a few at our club go back a long way with some of the key people at Pontefract and whilst I’m sure a number have had a few ‘choice’ words to say about me over the years it certainly doesn’t detract from my respect for the sterling work they have done over many many years. Last season they were rewarded with a well-earned promotion back to the league they like us should call ‘base level’ and this season through a brand of open running and powerful rugby they find themselves in 3rd position in the league. This isn’t a given, it just doesn’t happen, there are significant reasons why todays opponents are third in the league and we at Selby probably on the field need to take a long hard look at what they do and how effectively they do it. They have a good mix of youth and experience but it’s the latter in the likes of Glenn Boyd and Gaz Burns that makes them tick, they tend to do the right things in the right areas of the pitch and today will be a massive challenge for us.

As I mentioned earlier, I go back a long way with a few at Pontefract, non-more so than the Boyd family. In 1978 I found myself in the same Yorkshire Colts squad as Alan (along with a certain Peter Winterbottom) I had the pleasure of playing in the same team as Alan a truly silky player in his day and part of a great Pontefract Colts team who went on to become the backbone of the club for many years (Tommo, Marcus Langley, Closey, Richard Belamy to name but 4). The 1979 Yorkshire Colts team were the inaugural winners of the County Colts Cup (The Wilkinson Sword Trophy) which of course we won and playing in the team that day was a Pontefract player who other than injury would have played at a very good level. Tim Goodall absolute quality player but shoulder injuries restricted what would have been a good career. When I left Selby as Coach to take over Hull Ionians in 2001 my first signing was Glenn Boyd a player who I have always rated very highly and still doing his bit today. It would have been nice to have been able to see Glenn, Tim and Alan in a midfield combination, now that would have been some back line.

Well 40 years on and Selby are trying as hard as anyone to keep that conveyor belt between colts and first team very much open. A significant proportion of our team today were Selby Colts only a couple of years ago, we’ve blooded even more through this season and I’m delighted to see our current colts ably captained by Harrison Green and coached by Mark Pearson have reached the Yorkshire Plate Final. Very well done and Good luck in the final Lads.

Throughout the season when we go from club to club and share discussions in the clubhouse, I really find it hard not to make excuses when we have lost a game I know we could have done better in. This happened a few times in the lead up to Christmas, I am experienced enough to know ‘that the team you have on the pitch is the team you have on the pitch’ NO EXCUSES but at times we were missing 8 first team regulars and I don’t think any club in this league could have manged that. Move on a few weeks to our win at Guisborough and our fantastic victory in the last home game against Old Brodleians it was no coincidence that a significant number of those 8 players made some contribution during the game. I suppose the old adage applies ‘you can be the best coach in the world but it’s the quality of the player at your disposal that matters’. Today I am pleased to say we have a strong squad available again hoping to cause an upset and win the local ‘bragging rights. Today we welcome back Duncan Hardy, Matthew Wood, Alex Webster, Josh Cruise and Alex Hare to the starting XV, leaders on the pitch for us and all players we have missed at times this season.

Once again for us its ‘tight at the bottom’, it shouldn’t be, but its where we are, Guisborough are relegated so it’s one club to go with them and with only 10 points covering the next four teams its all to play for. We have a tough schedule but so do others, we have home games against Pontefract today and Beverley as well as away fixtures at our relegation rivals Rishworthians and Hullensians all winnable if we show the same application, we did in the last home game. We currently sit on 36 points and its not enough to be anywhere near comfortable. I have my own opinion of where we need to be to be safe but my ‘purple book’ says 50 points and that’s what we’re aiming for.

Last time out we were at league leaders and champions in waiting Moortown, we were well looked after, I’ve had my spats with Carl over the years but maybe as we’ve both ‘mellowed’ a little we can now enjoy a social beer together. Well done to them I say, they are a hugely effective and efficient team, nothing flash but absolutely clinical. My only point are their facilities, I know we may be a little blasé at Selby because we may take our excellent facilities for granted but I really hope they get their finances to a state where they can provide adequate changing rooms for all teams not just the home side and grass on a pitch, because when the bubble bursts (and it will) it’s the facilities that are left, not the players, as many many other clubs have found out before.

Finally I thought I’d give you an update on the league structure, a number of you may not know but the RFU are looking at a number of options in the Northern Division as a result of a number of Lancashire clubs pulling out of the league structure primarily because of the travelling distance to the likes of Cumbria. Its obviously considerably less miles from Oldham and Rochdale to Halifax than it is to Workington. So a number of alternatives were presented before us to try and eliminate this issue and I have to say the RFU stance was very much to try and reduce the size of the league from the current 14 team league to 12. From where we are in Selby in Yorkshire One (level seven) we think that reducing the leagues would not work for us, the status quo is perfectly ok, 14 team leagues work, they generate us the revenue, they give us sufficient games without being over bearing on the players and aspirationally we have both a level 7 or 6 league that mileage wise is perfectly acceptable. We also polled our players who all wanted to remain in a 14 team league.
The latest information I have, which is changing all the time, is that there will be no changes until at least 2020/21, but its evident to me at the meetings I’ve attended the RFU have an agenda that they have passed down to try and push through but they have come up against a rather big brick wall called ‘Yorkshire Rugby Clubs’.

Enjoy the game today. Yours in rugby Steve Cruise