Swans’ Second String Sink Salem

Selby’s youthful 2nd String travelled to Bradford Salem on Saturday in match day 3 of their merit league season under glorious blue skies and high temperatures.

Again with a series of injuries and call ups depleting the Selby side, they fielded a youthful team ably captained by the dependable Charlie Thompson switching to the back row. The Salem team were significantly more experienced and heavier across the pitch but Selby’s tactics were spot on and in the opening exchanges a combination of rapid and clinical breakdown work and slick handling allowed them to stretch continually the Salem defence. George Stoker, back in at fly half, hit a number of clinical kicks to keep Salem chasing back into their own twenty-two and indeed it was a precise kick into the in-goal area that saw Selby’s pacy back rower Alex Chapman outstripping a tiring defence to open the scoring on the 10 minute mark.

Selby were playing assuredly with No9 Jamie Skelton marshalling his forwards and backs who delivered with a series of fine line breaks and running moves. The first half saw a further rapid brace of tries for each of Selby’s giant 2nd row Bruce Potter and classy full-back Adam Rothera. A further try from a great support run by captain Thompson together with some fine conversions from Stoker and a penalty try for a high tackle led to a healthy 47 point first half haul for the Swans.

But it wasn’t just in attack that Selby shone. The size of the Salem pack meant that any close quarters battle would be difficult for Selby but some stout disciplined defending saw a number of driving mauls resisted. In the scrum Salem had a massive weight advantage but Selby’s youthful front row of Connor Parker, Neil Venables and Jack Smith stuck manfully to their task, even taking a couple of scrums against the head. Eventually Salem created pressure to score from a driven line out before picking off a loose midfield pass to close out the first half 12-47 down.

The second half was a tighter affair with Selby’s midfield again troubling Salem’s tiring backs. Chapman seized on a loose ball in midfield to run in his second try and Selby’s scoring was completed when centre Dan White’s busting run saw him go in under the posts. But for some handling errors Selby would have stretched even further away.

Salem kept at their task but some fine defence and set piece work saw Selby keep a clean sheet in the 2nd Half.

Final score Bradford Salem 2nds 12 Selby 2nds 61
Scorers Tries Chapman(2), Potter, B(2), Rothera(2), Thompson, White, Penalty Try, Conversions: Stoker(7)