Selby RUFC 3 v 37 York RUFC

Report by Ray Adamson

A brave defensive effort from Selby's young squad and a willingness to contest until the final whistle against a very good York saw the home side go into the Christmas break knowing that the second half of the season will again be a battle to maintain their Yorkshire 1 status. Things started off quite positively for Selby as they retained possession efficiently during the opening 5 minutes, but without really threatening to carve an opening through the visitors' defence. Once York got a foothold in the game it became a pretty one-sided affair, with the York Forwards dominating possession by comfortably winning their own ball and either stealing Selby's feed at the Scrum or shunting them back so that Scrum Half Danny Wilkinson had a difficult job clearing the ball away.

Within 10 minutes of the start York had registered their first score when the outstanding player of the afternoon, Tom Newitt, showed a great turn of pace to sprint in at the corner for the first of his four tries. The conversion from wide out failed to hit the target and Selby can be thankful that only one kick at goal was successful, otherwise the score could have been nearer the 50 point mark. The visitors registered their second score after 25 minutes when a speculative kick out of defence by Stand Off Josh Cruise was pounced upon by Will Atkins who then outstripped the defence for a fine individual try and just 5 minutes later the York Number 8 Shane Goulding crashed through the Selby defence for his first try of the afternoon and the only try that was successfully converted. With a 17 nil lead, York were now in full flow and looked capable of scoring at every opportunity but Selby showed great character in fighting to stem the flow of points. On their first real attack in the York half, Selby won themselves a penalty on the 22 and Josh Cruise made no mistake with Selby's sole scoring opportunity of the afternoon to reduce the deficit to 17 points to 3. However the relief was short lived as York returned to the attack and within 4 minutes Goulding smashed his way over for his second try which also gave the visitors their try scoring bonus point. At 22-3 the game appeared over as a contest and most of the half time chat was about damage limitation with even the most optimistic of Selby's followers unable to see any way back into the game.

The introduction of Millar McCoy to the front row shortly after the re-start helped to stabilise the Scrum for Selby and it was shortly after his introduction that Selby had their best chance of the afternoon. A long kick by Cruise was fumbled by the York Full back and Selby had the put in at a scrum just outside the York 5 metre line. Although the heel was won comfortably York's defence had little difficulty halting the initial surge and when they turned over possession shortly afterwards the chance had gone and with it any hopes of a Selby revival.

The rest of the afternoon belonged to Winger Tom Newitt who showed blistering pace to add 3 further tries to the one that had opened the scoring. His second and third tries saw him totally outpace the Selby defence as first a misjudged kick out of defence presented him with acres of space to run in and then a perfectly timed run from his own 22 saw him sprint fully 70 metres without a single Selby defender getting a hand on him. Despite their best efforts, Selby were once again put the sword just 2 minutes from time when another searing break saw Newitt cross for the final score of the game and a 37 points to 3 victory for the visitors which saw them maintain their third place in the League, whilst Selby slipped into 12th position, just 2 points clear of both Ribblesdale and Yarnbury.