New Bloods Fight Hard

In a game that was closer than the score line suggested the Selby “New Boys” showed that places in the starting 15 will be hard won over the coming months.

Another fine day and a hard pitch greeted the U13's as they arrived at the home of their old adversaries Goole.

This game was played in poor weather conditions last year but with a full sized pitch and good ground Selby should have been licking their lips at the thought of this fixture.

However with 8 of the senior players either unavailable or injured it was a good job that the policy of “Team Selby” is in place, as many of the starting line up played out of position or were facing their first full game of 50 mins.

The team spirit of this squad can be seen that despite this being an away game Selby had a “hospital bench” before the game, with Will “Doc” Stoker and Drew “Assassin Foster” coming down to watch their mates.

From the kick off Selby meet fire with fire, the forwards rucked well and won plenty of ball.

Despite this good ball the backs did not have the fluency they had shown in the last two games, this was not to be unexpected with only Wright playing in his normal position.

Distribution across the back line was made difficult by a combination of good Goole defensive play and players, who had not had any game time together, getting to know new positions. Leetham playing at 10 made a good start, with two good clearance kicks under pressure.

The game was evenly balanced with Selby making good ground and pinning Goole back in their own half.

When McCoy made a kick into their opponents half (into the breeze, it looked at first as if it would be gobbled up by the Goole full back. But he misjudged the line of flight and the ball bounced end on, back towards the Selby backs who were rushing the Goole defense.

Harrison gathered, and fed to McCoy following up his own kick, who went over the try line. However the Referee judged that the grounding was not legal and denied Selby the try.

Selby continued to look an effective team, with new man Brown making supporting runs from full back. Cole, Smith, McCloughlin, Leighton, and Douglas where supporting the ever rampaging Raddings to tremendous effect.

It was from this this team work, that Selby scored their first try. The ball was won just short of the half way line, from a ruck Wright made a break gaining good yardage, he made a pass out of contact to allow O'Gara to slip quick ball to Harrison, who broke the Goole defensive line and managed to get the ball away to Houson, who sprinted to the Goole 22 before being brought down. Harrison in support got the ball away to Ogara who made a jinking run to the left had side of the pitch where, supported by the Selby forwards he drove towards the Goole line.

In the melee that followed Raddings came up with the ball to dive over for the try. Leetham standing in for Hunt made the conversion.

Goole where not of the game and were giving a good account of themselves, particularly through their ten who was being allowed to run the game. This was addressed by McCoy and Harrison who started to make some good low hits which disrupted the flow of the Goole attack.

Despite this Goole made some good breaks down the right hand wing and it was on one of these attacks where the ball was moved out to the large Goole right winger that Begg got hurt. The Selby left wing made a tackle that whilst it failed to bring down the Goole man it slowed him down enough to allow the Selby hit men to get there and put him out of play.

Although Begg carried on for a while after this it became apparent later on that the injury he had suffered would mean he had to come off.

Before half time Selby found themselves driving over a ruck formed on the halfway line, Wright gathered the ball but was immediately hit by the Goole 12 who looked more than a little offside.

Raddings (who had broken off the ruck when the ball came out) gathered and attacked down the blind side. With a stout hand off to the Goole number 9 he was free with only the daunting prospect of a 40 meter sprint between him and glory. Last Season the big lose head might have faltered but the extra fitness training he has been doing paid off and he out sprinted the Goole full back to score under the posts.

Leetham with a stronger wind blowing from behind the posts narrowly missed the kick.

Half time came and Selby left the field 12 nil up.

At the restart Selby kicked off and Goole recovered the ball well, McCoy made a rush at the Goole player but missed his man, who then passed to the ten who was put down by Harrison but the overlap had been created and Goole got the ball out to the left wing who burst through to score under the posts. Try converted.

Shortly after this Selby had to bring on their last substitute as Wright picked up a knee injury at the base of a scrum and had to leave the field.

Selby regrouped and despite having now got 4 “newbies” on the pitch, the team spirit was still strong. With McCloughlin at scrum half for Wright and with new men Hicks,Houson and Brown it was a new look Green Machine that tried to roll forward.

Hogg (still relatively a new comer) on for the injured Begg, made a surging run down the left wing taking two men with him, he popped the ball inside to Ogara who made good ground with his elusive running. He went to ground and the Selby pack turned up to support. With ball won Selby strung a series of quick passes across filed to find Houson, who showed good pace to beat his first defender. He was taken into touch short of the line by the Goole full back.

This was the last real Selby attack as they were now tiring.

Raddings had picked up a foot injury and was not able to get to the breakdown, the other forwards where working hard but tiring, with only Steward, (who despite taking a number of big hits) was all over the pitch working in his usual terrier like manner.

On another day this would have been business as usual for Selby, but today with no substitutes left, legs were tired. The new lads despite their best efforts had run a long way, as lack of game time was made up for by sheer effort.

However at no point did Selby give in and despite Goole running in two more tries both of which were converted, Selby came off the filed a tighter team than they went on. The “Band of Brothers” can hold their heads high as they my not have won on points but they certainly won in the game of life.