Selby RUFC 14 – 15 Hullensians RUFC

Report by Ray Adamson

Having suffered a 56 point drubbing in the away fixture, Selby's young and improving side put in a tremendous performance and came within an ace of recording a notable victory when Hullensians visited Sandhill Lane for the first League fixture of the New Year. Having taken the lead after 64 minutes the resolute Selby defence comfortably kept their opponents at bay until a scrum infringement in the 79th minute gave Hullensians' full back Guy Martinson the chance to snatch the victory as he held his nerve to convert the kick from 25 metres and dash hopes of a morale boosting win for the home side.

Things seemed to be going wrong for Selby from very early on in the game as first a fairly straightforward penalty chance was missed and then Hullensians broke away from their own half to score the opening try through scrum half Chris Smith who appeared to gather the ball from an offside position before racing in close to the sticks to give Martinson an easy conversion and his side a scarcely deserved 7 point lead. After a spell of relative stalemate Selby were dealt another blow on 29 minutes when flanker James Blaymire, who was leading a terrific defensive display, was harshly judged to have made a high tackle by the touchline and was sent to the sin bin. The set back seemed to spur the Selby side to even greater efforts and as the half was drawing to a close the forwards crafted a well worked try for Stephen Clark who had only been on the pitch for 3 minutes, having replaced youngster Rob Oliver in the second row. Driving play from props Greg Nagle and Duncan Hardy forced the Hullensians defence to concede a penalty and a good kick to touch set up the position from which the 7 Selby forwards shunted the Hullensians 8 back to their own line. An excellent conversion from centre Iain Adamson ensured that the sides went into the break all square.

With Blaymire back on and with the advantage of a slight breeze the Selby faithful were optimistic that their side could start the New Year with a win and when Hullensians hooker Ran Whitehouse was yellow carded after 45 minutes fortune seemed to favour the home side. With 52 minutes played Selby appeared certain to take the lead when second row Joe Romaniw looked likely to win the chase to a kick through to the Hullensians' line but the score was denied as a tug on the shirt by scrum half Smith went unnoticed and unpunished by the referee who awarded the visitors a 22 metre drop out instead.

Thereafter things took a turn for the worse as Hullensians also managed to score despite being a man down when their winger made a devastating burst down the left wing and was able to feed centre Rob Harding to score wide out. With Martinson failing to convert Hullensians held a one score advantage at 12-7. A penalty kick at goal from Adamson after 59 minutes was on target but dropped short of the mark. However the disappointment was short lived as fly half Scott Hunt spotted a gap in the Hullensians defence just 5 minutes later to cross by the posts for his first try in first team colours. The simple conversion by Adamson gave Selby the lead for the first time at 14-12 and with Selby in the ascendency hopes were high that they would at least hold on and possibly even extend their advantage.

As the final whistle beckoned a speculative kick into the Selby half was expertly dealt with by winger Ashton Dallimore and Selby were awarded the put in at a scrum just outside the 22 with just 1 minute on the clock. With the crowd willing them to take a clean strike and clear the ball downfield the Selby forwards were instead shunted backwards and a hand in the scrum left referee Gavin Pinder with little option than to award the penalty to the visitors which ultimately proved to be the difference between a well deserved victory and a hugely disappointing bonus point defeat for the Selby players.