Hullensians RUFC 10 – 32 Selby RUFC

On a difficult, blustery afternoon at Hullensians, Selby’s better discipline and greater fitness were crucial in securing a second consecutive Bonus point win to top the Yorkshire 2 table at this early stage of the season.

Selby were forced to play into the teeth of a strong wind and after an early exchange of penalties by Selby’s Jordan Barton and Hullensians’ Jamie Gill, the visitors had to show their mettle as the home team camped in the Selby 22 for most of the rest of the half. Tremendous defence kept the visiting forwards at bay for most of that period but, having won a 5 metre scrum on 30 minutes the Selby Forwards lost the ball in contact and the Hullensians open side flanker, Chris O’Leary was able to cross underneath the posts to present a straightforward conversion to Gill. With no further scores in the remaining 10 minutes Selby were relatively pleased to turn round at only 10-3 down, despite losing influential back row forward Tim Thomas.

An early sign of Hullensians indiscipline saw Ed Beech yellow carded within 3 minutes of the re-start and Selby were eventually able to make their advantage pay when after 53 minutes the ball was spread wide to the flank, allowing speedster Alex Arthur to cross in the corner and so reduce the deficit to just 2 points. Such was the strength of the wind that the home side were rarely able to get into the Selby half during the third quarter of the match; however it was not until a successful penalty in the 63rd minute by Barton that Selby went into the lead for the first time in the game.

A second yellow card for Hullensians and the introduction of Christian Townend into the centre for Ed Clark seemed to greatly affect the balance of the game with Iain Adamson creating the opportunity for Townend to score an excellent try with his first touch of the ball after 73 minutes. The conversion by Adamson gave Selby the all important 2 score advantage with under 10 minutes remaining.

Hullensians were soon able to lay siege to the Selby line and thought they had narrowed the gap when crossing for a try wide out; however the referee adjudged that the ball had not been grounded correctly and instead awarded the home team a penalty in front of the posts. Knowing they needed to score twice Hullensians chose to kick to touch in the hope of scoring a try from the ensuing line-out. Selby however had other ideas and from a ball stolen against the throw and from deep in their own 22 they launched an attack which went the length of the pitch involving any number of players in superb inter-passing and eventually creating a terrific score for Ben Lunt.

The conversion by Adamson put the result beyond doubt at 25-10 in Selby’s favour before Duncan Hardy, for the third game in a row, had the final word by crossing for what is becoming a regular bonus point try well into injury time. The final nail in the Hullensians coffin was Adamson’s third successful conversion which completed the scoring at 32-10, a score which does not accurately reflect what a tough contest it had been nor the effort put in by a very competitive Hullensians team.