Wath Upon Dearne RUFC 35 v 7 Selby RUFC

Quarter Final Yorkshire Shield

Report by Ray Adamson

On a bitterly cold afternoon on a heavy pitch in South Yorkshire, an under-strength Selby team were no match for a fired up Wath side who deservedly took their place in the last 4 of this year's Yorkshire Shield. A minute's silence was held before kick off in memory of the partner of one of the Wath squad members and it certainly served to give the home side all the inspiration they needed to produce their best performance of the season so far.

Selby opened brightly and soon drove the home side back deep into their 22, when a penalty kick from Josh Cruise set up a line-out on the Wath 5 metre line. Unfortunately the throw missed its intended target, the Wath Forwards turned over possession and the home fly half used the stiff breeze to clear the danger and take play back into the Selby half. That was the first and last clear opportunity that the visitors had in the first half as Wath got on top in all phases of the game and Selby found themselves having to defend an onslaught from the home forwards.

The first try of the game came after just 6 minutes when a dropped pass in midfield was quickly gathered by the Wath forwards who released Flanker Joe Earp who in turn bulldozed his way through some ineffective tackling to crash over between the sticks, presenting Full back Jack Whitlam with the simplest of conversions. Despite enjoying the lion's share of possession and repeatedly driving at the Selby line, Wath were unable to turn pressure into points until the game moved into injury time when Centre Anthony Barrett again took advantage of some poor tackling to score wide out on the left. Whitlam hit an excellent conversion into the wind to give his side a deserved 14 point lead at half time.

Any hopes Selby had of using the elements to claw back the deficit were blown away within the first 15 minutes of the re-start as the home side put the game out of reach with three further tries, all of which were confidently converted by Whitlam, opening up a 35 point lead and threatening to run riot in the final quarter of the match. The first try was credited to Second Row Forward Jason Cotton following a cleanly won line out on the Selby 10 metre line, the second one saw Barrett completely wrong foot the defence with a dummy in midfield and the final home try of the afternoon followed a break down the blind side of a scrum by the Wath Scrum Half who fed Winger Ben Cairns to run in unopposed from 20 metres.

Facing the possibility of a rout, Selby finally managed to start matching the home side in all areas of the pitch and eventually began to find gaps and create space for their runners. However it wasn't until the game went into time added on for injury that Selby were able to breach the home defence and it was Selby's three Under 18s who showed the way to the line. Full Back Henry Wright started the move with a jinking run at the heart of the Wath defence and his pass to replacement Prop Adam Leetham, who ran a perfect line, saw him clean through into the Wath 22 and as he was confronted by the home Full Back, Leetham's offload saw Scrum Half Danny Wilkinson with a clear run to the sticks. Cruise made no mistake with the conversion and the final score of 35 points to 7 meant that Selby at least returned home with the some small crumb of consolation.