YORKSHIRE SHIELD – SEMI FINAL.
SELBY RUFC 33 – 36 SCARBOROUGH RUFC

Referee – Mr. Phil Gordge – East Yorkshire Society

Win, lose or draw, no one can claim that the entertainment level at Sandhill Lane is poor, especially for the neutral Rugby supporter – Selby’s semi final tie against Scarborough on Saturday once again put both sets of supporters ‘through the wringer’. In the final analysis, what probably cost Selby the opportunity to progress to their 3rd Shield Final in the space of 5 years was a really poor 10 minute spell at the start of the 2nd quarter of the game when they conceded 3 converted tries and went into the break trailing by 24 points to 7. A heroic fight-back in the second half produced a thrilling finale with Selby just falling short and losing the game by 36 points to 33. In truth, this was a poor performance by a Selby side who cannot expect to win games without securing their own ball, missing as many tackles as they did on Saturday and regularly taking the wrong option by trying to run the ball out of defence rather than kicking to touch to gain territory. Scarborough thoroughly deserved their victory and it would have been an injustice had Selby ‘nicked it’ in the end.

Dan Porter, Sam Cruise, Brendan Lanaghan and Dominic Bosher all returned to the starting line-up with Porter resuming at fly half and Josh Cruise dropping to full back. Brendan Lanaghan started in the second row in place of Tom Cobley who was injured in the loss at York last week. Andrew Pocklington and Duncan Hardy started in the front row with Charlie Cicero and Dominic Bosher joining number 8 Matthew Wood in the back row – the backs were unchanged from the defeat at York apart from positional switches. Mark Tanner, Ben Booth, Martin Protheroe and Iain Adamson made up the bench.

Selby started the stronger with Scarborough hardly having a sniff of any meaningful possession in the first 10 minutes of the half and should have taken an early lead on 7 minutes but a poor pass to the wing with the try line beckoning sailed into touch. All the Selby pressure failed to result in points with Scarborough gradually working their way into the match and they went ahead after 20 minutes when they were gifted a try after an awful cross-kick out of defence from the Selby 10 metre line went straight to the Scarborough winger Harry Domett who strolled over for the try – Scarborough full back Tom Ratcliffe kicked the conversion for a 7 points to nil lead. Only 5 minutes later, Scarborough second row forward Phil Watson strode over for his sides second try after some woeful tackling attempts by the Selby defence – another Ratcliffe conversion gave his side a 14 points to nil advantage. Two minutes later Charlie Cicero was replaced by Martin Protheroe with Matthew Wood switching to the second row. It was all Scarborough now and they went further ahead after 29 minutes with centre Benji Cottle over for Scarborough’s third try once again converted by Ratcliffe. Three converted tries conceded in the space of 9 minutes and the ‘writing was on the wall’ for the hosts. Selby did reduce their arrears after 35 minutes after a great break by number 8 Martin Protheroe (by far Selby’s most outstanding player and Man of the Match) who was caught short of the try line but re-cycled ball saw the impressive Alex Arthur cross for a good try – Josh Cruise converted. Scarborough increased their lead on the stroke of half time after Selby were penalised for ‘not rolling away’ with Ratcliffe converting the penalty for a half time lead of 24 points to 7 with Selby having to play ‘catch-up’ in the second half.

Iain Adamson replaced Kevin Lamb a minute into the second half but more Scarborough pressure after 46 minutes resulted in the referee eventually awarding a penalty try which Ratcliffe converted for an impressive 31 points to 7 advantage. Mark Tanner now replaced Sam Cruise with Ben Booth replacing Andrew Pocklington 4 minutes later. Selby at last found some rhythm and after being held up twice over the Scarborough try-line on 53 minutes skipper Duncan Hardy crashed over for the try – no conversion this time and with Charlie Cicero back on for the returning Brendan Lanaghan, Selby then started to put some useful phases together and after an impressive break by centre Charlton McCoy, substitute prop Ben Booth was on hand to score the try – with Cruise converting Selby now trailed by 31 points to 19. The ‘killer blow,’ as it eventually turned out, was dealt on 67 minutes after Scarborough took Selby’s scrum against the head on the Selby 10 metre line with the ball spread wide for centre Benji Cottle to speed over for his second try wide out – Ratcliffe failed with the conversion but Scarborough were now in front by 36 points to 19 but Selby were not finished yet. Another magnificent break from Protheroe on 71 minutes enabled winger Ben Lunt to somehow touch down in the corner with an excellent conversion by Josh Cruise bringing Selby to within 10 points of the opposition. Another dropped pass after good work by Protheroe and Arthur frustrated Selby but with 11 minutes of added-on-time, as it turned out, to play, it was Selby who were doing most of the pressing – the pressure was telling on Scarborough with substitute Tom Harrison and prop Nino Cutino both yellow carded in the place of 5 minutes – the pressure eventually told with Ben Booth going over after 90 minutes for his second try – Cruise kicked another good conversion, which turned out to be the last action of the game and to bring Selby to within 3 points of Scarborough with Selby having left themselves with far too much to do after a disastrous spell at the start of the 2nd quarter of the game.

Selby now have 4 League games remaining starting with basement Club Acklam at Sandhill Lane next Saturday – this coincides with Sponsor’s Day with a big crowd expected. They then travel to Bridlington the week after with the visit of current League leaders, Dinnington, to Sandhill Lane on Saturday 5 April before wrapping up their season with the long trip to North Ribblesdale the week after (All with 3 P.M. Kick Offs). With a couple of sides snapping at their heels, one wonders if Selby can retain their current 4th position in Yorkshire 1, particularly with their worsening injury list.