Selby RUFC 5 – 14 Heath RUFC

Report by Ian Marlow (Posted by Stephen Ward)

Selby took on top-of-the-league Heath at Sandhill Lane in their first New Year fixture and despite being highly competitive and evenly matched failed to register any league points for the second match running.

Heath fielded, as usual, a massive pack but Selby’s own beefed-up version more than held their own in the tight and in the loose all game, and even an early sin-binning didn’t seem to trouble them as Selby’s excellent defence dealt with Heath’s many meaty charges up the middle with not too much alarm. Selby were trying to play a more expansive game and, thanks mainly to the backfield skills of Jacob Robinson, opened up the Heath defence for three great try-scoring chances – unfortunately all of which were blown as poor handling saw the passes dropped or possession lost. Heath by contrast, were making few errors and profiting from Selby’s mistakes as they kept sticking the ball back in Selby’s 22 where more Selby dithering in the backs gifted them a converted try for 0-7. Another fine break by Jarrod Dixon showed that Heath’s hulking defence was quite porous against a bit of speed but, again, possession was lost cheaply without Selby testing the defence further.

Finally nearing half-time Selby’s forwards strung together some decent phases of play with Liam Hogan and Rob Bourke coming close to touching down. But then with Heath a sinned-bin man down and creaking at the seams as the Swans again pummelled their line, possession was again squandered as a highly speculative kick through got what it deserved - which was nothing.

Heath missed a simple penalty to extend their lead after half-time but no matter to them as Selby errors in attack continued, with the Swans incapable of holding onto any decent possession as speculative passes and continued poor handling scuppered their own chances. And then again, another Selby handling error on attack saw a poor pass dropped allowing the speedy Heath winger to hack the loose ball on from within his own half to score another self-inflicted try to make it 0-14 with half an hour to go. In contrast to their attacking troubles though, the Swans defence was absolutely rock solid, with the human dynamo Tom Edwards in the thick of everything – so, apart from through Selby’s own errors, the league leaders never looked like crossing the whitewash.

With the game seemingly petering out, the Swans were suddenly back in it as a handling move actually stuck as, after Hogan had made the break, a defence-splitting Josh Cruise pass found flying full-back George Stoker, who then drew his man to put in winger James Robinson for a fine try in the corner and 5-14 with minutes to go. With Selby now desperately searching for a consolation losing bonus point, they appeared to have done it by winning a very kickable penalty with the last play of the game, but to the utter bemusement of all those watching, but a fitting testament to their tactical naivety, they took the much more difficult option of a quick tap to try to score what would have been a largely irrelevant extra try - and promptly lost possession and their chance to take any points at all from the game.

Selby now have a tough match away at Bradford Salem on Saturday and having slipped down the league table recently will need to cut out the high number of unforced errors they make if they want to get back to winning ways.