GOOLE 6 SELBY 34
NORTHERN DIVISION YORKSHIRE LEAGUE DIVISION 2.

In the opening rounds of this hard fought game it looked as though Selby may well suffer a TKO as they were left reeling from a ferocious onslaught from Goole’s big pack of forwards, driven on by an ancient local rivalry and a fairly hard wind on their backs.
Rugby though is a game of a full eighty minutes and the home side could not put the Swans down, and as the game wore on , much as they huffed and puffed it all ended sadly as it was their own house that collapsed as they just ran out of breath.
It was a full half hour before Selby gained a foothold in opposition territory, as the Goole forwards threw everything into the opening salvo, dominating the set scrums, denying any possession in the loose and knocking over a couple of penalties from off half Mike Stoakes, but as the Westfield men started to gasp, their visitors started to look ever more dangerous and young 10 Josh Cruise opened their account with a good penalty into the wind. The mobility of the Selby forwards began to show with flanker Matty Wood leading the way with a super show on his return from more than a year out of the game with a broken leg, and the half closed ominously with pressure on the home line, and a 3 point margin looking extremely vulnerable.

And so it proved as within a minute of the restart, a long kick out of his own 22 from Cruise into an enormous space was fielded by full back Crawford who was immediately collared by flying wingman Ben Lunt who was the beneficiary of quickly recycled ball to skip in at the corner.
Four minutes later, as a fast tiring Goole struggled to clear their lines the ball fell to Selby’s full back, Dancing Dan Porter who just skinned the entire back line with his pace for a touch down near the posts to give Cruise an easy conversion.
Virtually straight from the kick off a loose ball was hacked forward and chased down by lively hooker Josh Greenfield who gathered and forced over for an opportunistic score.
As Selby relaxed the pressure Goole came back into the game and with a series of “ pick & goes 2 created some pressure in their opponents 22, but the defence held firm and worked their way back into the attacking half and a big hit in midfield from Aussie Ace Duncan Hardy dislodged the ball, which was scooped up by the mercurial Cruise and duly dabbed down under the sticks to give him an additional seven points.
As the Swans repeatedly ran the ball at the floundering East Riding side, their pace was just too much for them to handle and a well judged kick through from Porter was fielded by the ever dangerous Lunt to scorch through and to give Cruise a final kick to make his personal tally fourteen points.
To their credit Goole never gave up and continued to attempt to run the ball at the Selby lines, but with the memory of the early hurt strong in their minds the defence remained resolute and aggressive and the pride at the final whistle was not only for the first victory at Westfield since 1997, but both for the five tries scored and also the shut out of their line.
With players of the quality of Jason Cicero, James Blaymire, Jay Robinson, Karim Brown, Tom Bell and Alex Webster likely to be available for the run in for the final league and Yorkshire Shield games the season could yet finish on a high.
With yet another away game on Saturday, this time to Ripon Selby’s faithful followers will have forgotten what Sandhill Lane looks like, but with performances like that on Saturday it is a pleasure watching no matter what the venue.

SELBY LINE-UP:

15 Full Back Porter D
14 Wing Lunt B
13 Centre Arthur A
12 Centre Weller S
11 Wing Saunders O
10 Stand Off Cruise J
9 Scrum Half Butcher J
1 Prop Pocklington A
2 Hooker Greenfield J
3 Prop Christison D
4 Lock Toye M
5 Lock Lanaghan B
6 Flanker Wood M
7 Flanker Hardy D (Captain)
8 No 8 Booth B

Substitutes

Protheroe M (For Booth B – 50 Minutes)
Randell P (For Christison D – 60 Minutes)
Adamson I (For Weller S – 67 Minutes)