17 year old Josh Cruise made a dream debut for Selby’s first fifteen, scoring all his team’s points in a man of the match performance through 3 penalties and a converted try in the dying minutes to prevent Yarnbury taking the losing bonus point.

From the outset it looked like being a contest between the Yarnbury forwards and the Selby backs and the number of penalties conceded by the visitors for offside gives an indication of the threat posed by Selby’s dangerous three quarter line.

Although Selby looked the better outfit in the opening exchanges they were unable to penetrate the Yarnbury defence and for all their endeavour had only 2 Cruise penalties to show at the interval with Yarnbury eventually getting on the scoreboard in the fifth minute of time added on through former Selby fly-half Carl Patterson. One outstanding passage of play saw second row forward Brendan Lanaghan with a clear run to the line, only for the referee to adjudge the final pass marginally forward, a real pity given the quality of the build up.

Yarnbury started the second half well on top and only committed defending by all Selby players prevented a score. After 10 minutes of relentless defence Selby were penalised on their own line and with Karim Brown yellow carded it came as no surprise that the Yarnbury forwards were able to drive skipper Alex Bowden over the line for a try which gave them the lead even though Patterson was unable to convert.

The lead was short lived when Yarnbury were again caught offside after 57 minutes and Cruise made no mistake with his third successful penalty of the afternoon. Selby would have expected to have gone behind just 2 minutes later when Patterson was presented with a penalty in front of the posts but the kick from 35 metres drifted wide of the right hand upright and the faithful Selby supporters heaved a collective sigh of relief.

As play ebbed and flowed it seemed that Yarnbury were finishing the stronger but Selby eventually drove their way up into Yarnbury territory and as time ticked away play was forced into the visitors’ 22. Showing considerable nous and determination the Selby forwards got to within 5 metres of the Yarnbury line and, when the ball was switched down the defending 15 metre channel, Cruise was still alert enough to throw a delightful dummy and glide between the posts for the score that sealed the win for Selby and confirmed his man of the match award, despite a strong performance by Martin Protheroe in the forwards, the conversion taking Selby beyond the 7 point margin that would have meant a losing bonus point for Yarnbury at 16-8.

The win takes Selby above Yarnbury in the League and sets up a mouth watering home Yorkshire Shield tie against Pocklington, who last season took Selby’s place in Yorkshire 1.