Selby RUFC 12 v 13 Pontefract RUFC
Yorkshire Shield Quarter Final
Report by Ray Adamson
Selby's run in this year's Yorkshire Shield came to a disappointing end on Saturday when near neighbours and staunch adversaries Pontefract came to Sandhill Lane and made light of their lower League status, claiming the victory that sees them through to the Semi-Final of the competition. The score-line suggests a close contest but the visitors will probably look back on a number of opportunities missed that would have given them a much more comfortable cushion, succeeding with just one kick at goal from a possible eight in the difficult, blustery conditions. Selby themselves found scoring opportunities hard to come by against a well organised and aggressive Pontefract defence, their second try deep into injury time at the end of the match producing a score-line which somewhat flattered the home side.

Despite having the benefit of a strong wind in the first half, Selby found it difficult to keep hold of possession for any length of time and were unable to achieve the territorial advantage they might have expected. The game was just 14 minutes old when Pontefract took the lead courtesy of a try by winger Josh Beecher. A scrum on the Selby 22 was heeled cleanly but flew out of the back of the scrum and the visitor's scrum half was quickest to react, scooping up the loose ball and setting his backs free to create the space for Beecher to outflank the Selby defence wide out on the left. In the conditions there was little realistic chance of fly half Glenn Boyd succeeding with the conversion but his side had thrown down a marker of intent as they looked to move the ball wide and stretch the Selby defence at every opportunity.

Although the quality of play was determined to a large extent by the weather conditions the atmosphere on and around the pitch was tense throughout as both sides battled to gain the upper hand. Selby managed to level the scores on 25 minutes with probably their most fluent play of the afternoon. A clean line out take 30 metres out was spread to the right hand side of the pitch and when the ball was recycled at contact it was quickly moved out to full back Lunt who showed his finishing skills by brushing off the Pontefract open side and giving himself a clear run to the line. Fly half Scott Hunt narrowly misjudged the kick and saw the conversion miss the left hand upright by just a couple of metres.

Despite having the better of territory for the rest of the half, Selby were unable to significantly disrupt the Pontefract defence and were disappointed to go into the half time break all square at 5 points each. From the restart Pontefract were given the chance to stretch their lead when Selby were penalised for not releasing the ball in the tackle but Boyd was unable to find the accuracy needed despite the kick being directly in front of the posts. Their disappointment was however short lived as the visitors regained the advantage just 3 minutes later when a sweeping three quarters move created the score for right winger Ian Mattison close to the touchline. Boyd's conversion was well struck but drifted wide of the target at which point he handed over kicking duties to try scorer Mattison. A fracas between the sides erupted after 52 minutes when the Selby forwards took exception to an apparent kick to the head by a Pontefract flanker on Selby's replacement Matthew Lennox, with the referee harshly yellow carding Lennox and mistakenly sending the Pontefract hooker to the sin bin for 10 minutes. With both sides reduced to 14 Pontefract took a bit of a stranglehold on the game, forcing Selby into conceding a number of penalties in their own half. However Mattison struggled with the conditions just as Boyd had and was only able to convert his third attempt at goal but eventually succeeded in giving his side a crucial 2 score advantage. The visitors remained in control when both sides were returned to a full complement with Selby struggling to gain a foothold in the Pontefract half and with the game approaching full time Mattison was given the chance to put the game out of reach but he was again unable to hit the target. It is testament to the Pontefract defence that it took until injury time for Selby to finally break into the visitors' 22 and prop forward Greg Nagle's consolation try by the side of the posts gave Hunt an easy conversion, reduced the margin of defeat to a single point and left the home supporters disappointed to see this year's Cup run ended and to reflect on what might have been.