YARNBURY 25 SELBY 17
NORTHERN DIVISION YORKSHIRE LEAGUE DIVISION 2.

Selby travelled to Yarnbury showing several changes to the squad which ran the league leaders so close last week with Tom Ambler, Jack Daniels, Matty Wood, Mark Toye, Christian Townend & Ollie O’Brien coming in for Dan Porter, Alex Arthur, Ben Lunt, Jason Hirst, Karim Brown, Sam Weller & Martin Protheroe to upset the balance of the side a little.
But it was the two problems which have so bedevilled the team this season, mistakes at crucial times and unforgivable indiscipline which cost the team dear this week.
Facing a sizeable home pack, which never punched its weight, Selby had the upper hand in the opening exchanges and a charge down on the Yarnbury line resulted in a Selby lineout and No 8 Ben Booth crashed over from the tail, and quality off half Josh Cruise converted.
Then a golden opportunity was spurned as a two on one overlap was spurned and a certain score denied with a slack pass into touch.
The Horsforth men then started to play with a series of pick & drives taking play deep into opposition 22, and with a series of offences at the breakdown Selby were lucky to escape punishment from ex Selby junior Karl Patterson, who was off target with the boot all afternoon.
The game then evened out, but with young flanker Josh Greenfield continuing to irritate the referee Mr Rob Staines by not heeding warnings by the only man in charge, a yellow card became inevitable, and it was for a particularly blatant offence of interfering with play from an offside position.
The Swans ten minute spell with fourteen men then resulted in ten points being shipped with tries by scrum half Cashman and the bulky Patterson.

The second half continued with the visitor’s discipline disintegrating further & good hands & direct running coupled with slack tackling saw a flowing move finished by centre Avison put yet another five points in the points against column.
Selby then pulled themselves round & a penalty from livewire No 10 Josh Cruise showed his opposite number the way to strike a ball, and the youngster showed that he is not a one trick pony, when a delightful kick into space, saw a good position set up in the opposition 22 and when the ball was quickly recycled out to winger Ollie Saunders, his spectacular, mazy run to the posts allowed Cruise to increase his tally with an easy conversion.
The lead, however was short lived, as spectacular stupidity saw a scrum under the Selby posts collapse, with the referee lecturing both incriminated props, when backchat from a Selby player saw a penalty awarded from a position that not even the Yarnbury 10 could miss, which gave his side the lead at 18-17.
The Sandhill Lane men, to their credit, then pressed hard for the winning score as the clock ticked down, but their frantic efforts were in vain as a breakaway score by the strong running Avison, who simply ran over the top of the diminutive Selby winger to give his side a bonus point for the fourth try.

Selby return to the same venue next week on Easter Saturday and will need to improve on finishing & discipline if they are to progress to the semi-final of the Yorkshire Shield completion, but they do know that they can push this opposition all the way.

SELBY LINE-UP:

15 Full Back Ambler T
14 Wing Saunders O
13 Centre Adamson I
12 Centre Webster A
11 Wing Daniels J
10 Stand Off Cruise J
9 Scrum Half Butcher J
1 Prop Pocklington A
2 Hooker Randell P (Captain)
3 Prop Hardy D
4 Lock Cicero J
5 Lock Lanaghan B
6 Flanker Wood M
7 Flanker Greenfield J
8 No 8 Booth B

Substitutes

Townend C (For Adamson I – 19 Minutes)
Toye M (For Cicero J – 51 Minutes)
O’Brien O (For Greenfield J – 61 Minutes)

NORTHERN DIVISION YORKSHIRE LEAGUE DIVISION 2
SEASON 2011-2012.

TEAM P W D L FOR AGAINST DIFF B.P.'s POINTS DED

Barnsley 24 19 2 3 818 401 417 16 96
Bradford Salem 24 17 3 4 706 333 373 14 88
West Park Leeds 24 14 5 5 627 353 274 15 81
Wath Upon Dearne 22 17 0 5 679 339 340 12 80
Leodiensian 24 14 1 9 567 406 161 13 71
SELBY 24 14 0 10 540 450 90 14 70
Hullensians 24 15 1 8 546 556 -10 12 69 5
Yarnbury 23 13 1 9 529 476 53 13 67
Doncaster Phoenix 24 8 2 14 438 586 -148 10 46
West Leeds 22 8 1 13 465 583 -118 8 42
Skipton 24 6 1 17 348 641 -293 7 33
Ripon 23 5 1 17 340 576 -236 5 27
Moortown 24 4 0 20 351 802 -451 7 18 5
Goole 24 2 0 22 331 783 -452 6 14