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YORK 20  SELBY  20

YORK 20 SELBY 20

Reg Phillips11 Oct 2008 - 20:05
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Selby Robbery in Quality Street, York

YORK 20 SELBY 20

Never mind the old cliché regarding a game of two halves, this was a game that boiled down to just six minutes , three in each half.
That was the time it took York to score two converted tries in the final three minutes of the first half, and for Selby to repeat the trick in the final minutes of a long stoppage time.
Both sides demonstrated a rock solid defence, with the York back row outstanding, but with the Selby front five winning the scrummage battle. The lineouts went to the home side, with Paul Randell’s throwing indicating his lack of experience in this department, but as ever, his work rate and enthusiasm countered this problem.
The first ten minutes belonged to York with the Swans unable to gain any meaningful possession, but the home side unable to penetrate their visitors defence. Jon Crane topped the tackle count for Selby, in this period and throughout the game.
Selby weathered the storm, and put ther hosts under serious pressure for a long period, but were unable to convert the pressure into points, neither penalties nor tries, and indeed, York wwere first to open their account, when the Swan’s defence was at sixes and sevens attempting to deal with a speculative kick, and the York No 10 Williams intercepted a slack pass to score under the posts.
Selby heads went down, and the Clifton boys lifted theirs and claimed another immediate score with winger Ed Beechy stepping in.

Selby were stunned by the score having gone 0-0 to 14-0 inside three minutes, but the home side increased the lead with a penalty within two minutes of the restart.
Then Selby started to build a game, but with a desperate York defence conceding a string of penalties, last week’s hero off half Jordan Barton became the villain, with a couple of poor misses. Undaunted, Selby continued to press, and finally Barton’s aim hit the spot, and this encouraged him to slot another, which was immediately cancelled by a Williams reply.
The game looked to be beyond Selby, as wave after wave of their attack was repulsed, often illegally, until finally, and not before time, York No 8 Kay was sent to the bin.
The Sandhill Lane men continued to press, and it seemed that the game had gone, when winger Ben Lunt showing great determination shrugged off two tacklers and roared in at the corner. Barton coolly lined up the kick, and drilled it sweetly between the posts.
Then finally, breathlessly, Selby played rugby with some cohesion, thanks in some measure to the introduction of centre Andy Bennett, and a superb, sweeping move was finished off by try scorer par excellence Ben Lunt.
As the chocolate melted, on the faces of the York Quality Street Gang, or perhaps, stuck in their throat, Barton made amends for his earlier misses with the equalling conversion with the final kick of the game.
18 year old second row, Matty Wood was adjudged the Selby Post Man of the Match for eighty minutes of quality and industry.
Next week sees Selby host Moortown of Yorkshire 2, at Sandhill Lane, in the first round of the EDF Senior Vase, and it is to be hoped that a serious attempt is made in this competion, in which Selby have a good record, and it would be nice to have an extended run.
Team : Dovey,Lunt, Saunders Gable,Weller,Barton, Smith ;
Pocklington, Randell, Christison, Cicero, Wood, Crane, Nicholson,Taylor ( capt)
Subs : Toye ( Cicero 60 min), Bennett ( Dovey 70min ), Copperwheat ( not used )

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