Selby RUFC 10 – 45 Dinnington RUFC

Report by Ian Marlow (Posted by Stephen Ward)

Selby’s relegation worries intensified considerably after a desperate and depressing defeat at home to Dinnington – and it was not just the crushing scoreline that was so worrying but the manner in which Selby were completely unable to muster any sort of meaningful challenge against a mid-table team.

In the corresponding away fixture earlier in the season, Selby lost narrowly because of their inability to convert a number of clean breaks into points and that same flaw continued in spades on Saturday as they again made numerous breaks through the Dinnington line in the first half. Unfortunately in each instance, instead of building on their field positions and recycling to play through the phases, Selby immediately gifted the cheapest of possession back to the opposition with some overly-ambitious attempted passes, quite a number of which went straight to a Dinnington player! Dinnington in contrast ‘old manned’ the Swans, giving them a lesson in ball possession and control, playing a simple but effective game of driving the ball in from forwards and backs alike before giving their fly half the room to stick the ball deep in Selby’s corners to invite them to escape. Unfortunately again, with Selby’s set pieces as suspect as their handling, Dinnington enjoyed a surfeit of possession on the Selby line from which, after inevitable Selby penalties, they kicked two penalties as easy as you like for a 0-6 lead.

A smattering of Selby possession finally gave Selby new boy Harry Graham a chance to slot a penalty in reply after 15 minutes but for the rest of the half Selby continued to gift Dinnington almost immediate possession from every aspect of play - and the visitors duly said ‘thank you very much’ to score a further penalty and try for a 3-14 half time score.

Any hopes that Selby couldn’t possibly play as badly in the second were sadly unrealised as their inability to retain possession for any length of time and control the ball to exert any pressure of their own continued - highlighted particularly at the line out where they only managed to secure their own ball once during the entire match. Indeed, if Selby held the ball for more five minutes of actual playing during the whole match then I’m a monkey’s uncle – and Selby were simply unable to compete with that lack of possession. Dinnington in contrast had a field day with all their free goes and with every Tom, Dick, and Harry of them now wanting to get in on the act the expressions of glee from both their players and fans as they crossed for another five easy tries, and 3-45 score line, contrasted painfully against the increasingly glum countenances of their Selby counterparts.

Finally, with nothing meaningful left on the table, except to maybe show what could have been had they managed to string any phases of play together themselves, Selby did string a few phases of quality possessions together for the gaps to open again for Danny Wilkinson to dive in for the last try and final score of 10-45.

So, a thoroughly chastening day for Selby and things are not going to get any easier with another very stern test away Old Crossleyans on Saturday.