Salem has always been a difficult hunting ground for Selby and the West Yorkshiremen have well and truly cooked the Swans’ goose on many occasions recently - but Salem have been struggling with player availability more than most this season, so the weakened team they fielded on Saturday gave Selby an excellent chance for some redress.

Playing with the wind and rain at their back though Salem used their fly-half, Sam Allen’s, strong boot to pin Selby back at every opportunity and, after the usual unforced infringements, Allen kicked two long-range penalties for an early 6-0 lead. Selby’s scrum was utterly dominant providing plenty of good ball but the weather was not conducive to their expansive style of play, and handling errors were aplenty. The frustration was lifted though as Salem’s committed defence was finally breached as Jack Hebden broke to put coach Jay Robinson through to round the full back for a smart try and 6-7. And after some powerful ball carrying by stout second-rower Sam Broughton, Robinson returned the favour by breaking free to put stand-in skipper Tom Edwards in for 6-14 at half-time.

With the weather now behind them, Selby were looking to stretch away and a quick score to Alex Webster for 6-19 seemed to presage a coming deluge of points. However, Noah was kept waiting as the flood never arrived - and instead Salem dominated possession and territory for the next 25 minutes, with Selby’s handling difficulties persisting. With Selby frustrations growing, particularly with Mr Referee now finding regular illegitimacy with the packs continuing steamrollering of their opponents at scrum-time (being cruel to an opposition pack maybe?), relief was finally provided as Selby managed to string together more than one phase of play for Edwards to burrow over for his second try.

And a late flattering gloss was added to the final score as firstly Edwards backed up a bruising line-break from Hogan, to collect the pass, sell an outrageous dummy, and cross for a captain’s hat-trick - and then Webster charged down and collected in midfield before, after his aging pins couldn’t make it to the try-line, passing on to the much younger legs of fellow ‘summer-time pie chucker’ James Bramley for a simple final try, and 6-38 at stumps.