Selby RUFC 16 – 19 West Leeds RUFC

Report by Ian Marlow (Posted by Stephen Ward)

Karma finally caught up with Selby on Saturday as after a number of very tight wins this season they went down to the very last kick of the match against close league rivals West Leeds.

In soggy conditions Selby started well and after good ball retention had worked the ball up-field Josh Cruise kicked an early penalty for 3-0. With West Leeds reduced to 14 men after a tip tackle in midfield, sensibly dealt with by the referee with a yellow card only; the Swans doubled their lead with another excellent Cruise penalty after the Selby scrum had demolished their opponents.

West Leeds then showed their own attacking credentials, despite continuing to suffer in the scrummage and being a man down, with some tidy and direct play from both backs and forwards alike, and two penalties to them made it 6-6 on twenty minutes. A fabulous long miss pass from Jay Robinson gave Joe Ramsay and Harry Cruise a break up the right flank from deep, but poor handling scuppered the golden chance – although the pack mitigated the disappointment by earning another scrum penalty, slotted by Josh Cruise for 9-6. Another great break from Danny Wilkinson once again came to nothing, before Leeds showed how to recycle possession to earn another penalty for themselves to again restore parity. A seemingly great chance to end the half with another seven points came and went as, from a five-yard Selby scrum, the Leeds pack had had enough of being pushed around and mullered the Swans’ scrummage to win the penalty and leave the score at 9-9 at half time.

The second half continued to be a tight affair but Leeds started to look the more likely with better ball retention giving them the lion’s share of possession and territory. With Selby under the cosh, an excellent break from Robinson relieved the pressure and gained enough territory for Josh Cruise to try to nick the lead again with a long range penalty - but the kick slid wide. However, moments later a pin-point cross-field kick from Cruise found the charging Ramsey who collected and scooted over for Cruise to convert for 16-9 on the hour.

A peculiar incident then occurred as, with Selby’s scrummage still causing havoc to the Leeds pack, injuries to a couple of their front rows meant they had no fully functioning replacements, and the scrums therefore had to go uncontested thenceforth. Ordinarily this would have been to Leeds’ advantage, nullifying Selby’s most potent weapon and opening up the room for their more dangerous backs to operate, but the referee’s contentious ruling was that Leeds could make no replacement at all, so they would be a man down for the rest of the match. With the Leeds coaches scrabbling to consult the law book, their players simply made light of the confusion as they continued to dominate proceedings on the pitch - and with Selby going into full-blown penalty mode, territory and ball was gifted to them for the forwards to drive Duane Smith over to level the scores at 16-16 with ten minutes to play.

A two point draw wouldn’t have been a bad return for Selby considering but, alas, their really quite atrocious indiscipline deserved a consequence, and it duly came with another raft of senseless penalties gifting Leeds possession and territory in front of the posts - so when, with the inevitability of another Brexit extension, another infringement was committed, Leeds slotted it over for a deserved win with the last kick.

Selby take a break from league rugby now with a Friday night Yorkshire Trophy cup game away at Hullensians (KO 7:30), and all support would be greatly appreciated.