Sandal 3rds 34 Vs Selby 3rds 24

As the season winds down to its conclusion and, with Selby 3rds sitting comfortably in second place in the table after a string of good results stretching back to late September, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Swans should easily take the away tie at miss-firing Sandal in their stride. Nothing could be further from the truth
The Selby team that took to the field at Standbridge Lane had several absentees who were away doing missionary work on a club tour of the badlands west of the Pennines that saw them dispatch both Chorley & Eccles whilst under the influence
There was ample talent remaining though back-filled with willing junior colts to give Sandal a contest and Selby it was who took the lead in the opening minutes through Harry Crowson with Leigh Adamson’s boot tidying up the extras.
Sandal struck back through their robust pacey back row releasing their half backs to punch holes through off balance retreating defenders to put themselves 12-7 up at the interval
Balance was restored soon after the break as Elliott Redmond was able to keep control of a ball that seemed determined to elude his grasp to ghost over and dot down out wide
The scrums went uncontested as a result of one of the Sandal props pulling up lame and refusing a loan replacement. This enabled Sandal to inject some much needed pace into proceedings and they began to launch lightning precision attacks capitalising on the extra back to force the gaps
Selby reeled under the onslaught of four quick Sandal tries, fortunately for the Swans the Sandal kicking boot wasn’t present leaving a glimmer of hope that a last ditch come-back might be on.
The Swans encamped on the Sandal twenty-two and with Jason Goodwin, Adamson & Aidan Pearce driving the line it was only a matter of time before they were duly rewarded and it came care of a trademark Adam Lee assault topped off with the conversion and Redmond again stealing over for an unconverted try to further reduce the arrears
In the end time ran out however it was a good Selby performance that kept going right to the final whistle. Amongst the younger contributors, Crowson, Redmond and Adam Calvert all contributed strong performances. Lots of promise for the future there. Next Saturday it’s back to Leeds for the return tie against the Medics