YORKSHIRE SHIELD QUARTER FINAL.
YORK RUFC 24 – 34 SELBY RUFC

Referee – Mr. Peter Stentiford – North Yorkshire Society

Selby travelled to take on local rivals York under floodlights on Tuesday evening in the quarter final of the Yorkshire Shield and came away with an impressive 34 points to 24 victory that propels them into the Semi-Final where they have a home tie against Scarborough on Saturday 22 February 2014 for a place in their 3rd final 5 years. On a rain sodden pitch it was York who were to dominate much of the first half to take a 17 points to 5 lead into the half time interval. Selby came back strongly in the second half playing some excellent flowing rugby to over-haul their opponents and take a richly deserved win.

With Andrew Pocklington, Duncan Hardy and Jason Cicero all unavailable and Jacob Robinson missing through injury, Selby had to make major changes to their forward line-up. Mark Tanner and Tom Bell started in the front row with Matthew Wood filling the second row vacancy. Dominic Bosher started at flanker in place of Robinson. Alex Hare (wing) and Sam Weller (centre) were absentees in the back division and were replaced by Charlton McCoy and Alex Arthur respectively.

In front of a substantial crowd with a large contingent from Selby, York took the kick off placing Selby under immediate pressure with their big forwards employing a ‘pick and go’ and ‘catch and drive’ strategy, which was to prove extremely effective, particularly in the first quarter of the match and it was no real surprise when they took the lead after 6 minutes with their forwards providing the platform for scrum half Toby Atkin to wriggle over near the posts for the first try of the game – fly half Charlie Young kicked the conversion for an early 7 points to nil advantage to the hosts. The York forwards continued to dominate with Selby restricted to occasional phases of open running rugby from their backs. York increased their lead on 18 minutes with Selby penalised for pulling down the maul – Young kicked the penalty for a 10 points to nil lead. Four minutes later, Selby enjoyed a brief spell of pressure but failed to put points on the board and could have gone further behind after 26 minutes when they were caught offside but Young missed the penalty chance. At this point Ben Booth replaced Mark Tanner at prop. York were down to 14 after 33 minutes when their number 9 was yellow carded with Selby then replacing Martin Protheroe with Mark Toye who spent only 3 minutes on the pitch before he too, was yellow carded. Almost immediately the York forwards took advantage with their number 8, Willem Enslin mauled over the line for a try which Young converted giving York a handy 17 points to nil lead. Shortly afterwards, with Selby now pressurising the York defence, the York number 6 was also binned for 10 minutes. Now with a 14 to 13 advantage in numbers, Selby’s pressure paid off with the marauding flanker, Rihi Brown, over for a try near the corner – no conversion from Josh Cruise but Selby were on the score-board but trailing by 17 points to 5 at the half time interval.

It was now York’s turn to defend in numbers straight from the Selby kick off – the pressure paid off with a handsome try coming from centre Alex Arthur – Josh Cruise’s conversion sailed through the posts but was chalked off by the referee who considered that too much time had been taken to execute the conversion – still, Selby were now within a score of York trailing by only 17 points to 10. After 46 minutes Toye was due to return to the field of play after serving his 10 minutes in the bin but was replaced by the returning Martin Protheroe. York did have the opportunity to extend their lead on 55 minutes but Young failed with his penalty attempt. More and more Selby pressure saw centre Alex Arthur make an excellent break after 59 minutes and with the York full back yellow carded for a dangerous tackle 2 minutes later, Selby reduced their arrears still further after young hooker Sam Cruise wriggled his way over for the try – again no conversion but Selby now looked as if they were very capable of winning the game and went in front for the first time after 64 minutes with another excellent try – this time by centre Teihana Brown – Josh Cruise kicked his first conversion to give Selby a 22 points to 17 advantage. Selby were in the ascendancy now playing their exiting brand of rugby, but to their credit, and on one of their rare forays into the Selby 22, the York forwards pressurised Selby into conceding a penalty try after 74 minutes which Young converted to put his side back into the lead by 24 points to 22. The jubilation of the York supporters was silenced 3 minutes later when Selby’s man of the match, Ben Booth went over for Selby’s 5th try of the match – Cruise converted to put Selby back in front by 29 points to 24. Duncan Phillips joined the fray for the last few minutes in place of Dominic Bosher with York still trying to get back into the game but were thwarted in the 2nd minute of added on time when Selby fly half and skipper Dan Porter stole the ball on the Selby 30 metre line before threading his way through some despairing tackles to score Selby’s sixth try of the night to seal a deserved win for the jubilant Swans – no conversion but a very satisfying 34 points to 24 win and a place in the Yorkshire Shield Semi Final.