Selby RUFC 20 – 17 Dinnington RUFC

Report by Ian Marlow (Posted by Stephen Ward)

Selby were very happy to happen to be the team in front at the final whistle at Sandhill Lane on Saturday as they got their league campaign back on track, after a series of worrying defeats, with a scrappy and hard-fought victory over fellow mid-table Dinnington.

Selby started as bright as the day with the returning Alex Webster immediately showing the backline class the Swans have been missing as he sliced through the Dinnington defence to set Joe Ramsey on his way up the right touchline to blitz home for the opening try. Unfortunately, Selby’s re-acquired defensive frailties immediately materialised as, after having failed to clear their lines from the restart, the Dinnington No 8 casually strolled through three tackles from the base of a scrum to restore parity at 7-7.

Selby’s attempts to keep spinning the ball wide against less mobile opponents was successful on several occasions as they broke upfield, but on each occasion an inability to hold onto the ball much past the first phase undid any good field positions they had earned – although Josh Cruise did kick a good penalty for a 10-7 lead after twenty minutes. Dinnington by contrast were showing that they could hold onto the ball and, after Selby had again failed to clear their line from the restart, worked their way up to the Swans’ line where they again ambled through non-existent tackling down the blind-side to regain the lead at 10-12. Selby continued to turn over possession cheaply and, with Dinnington’s fly-half capitalising to kick them into some excellent field positions, were fortunate to turn around with no further scores against them as Dinnington mucked up a couple of good chances with the try-line begging.

Selby regained the lead immediately after half-time with another cracking try as a cute line out ploy on half-way from Hooker Jamie Dentith sent athletic Second-rower Ash Parkinson away down the touchline, to sell a beautifully dummy and outpace the cover to touch down in the corner - superbly converted by Scott Hunt for a 17-12 lead. The real trouble for Dinnington, however, was that their influential fly-half had suffered a match-ending injury in attempting to stop the try – and while a teammate admirably stepped up to the plate (or was he press-ganged!?) as an emergency replacement, it was clear from the outset that he was of nowhere near the same experience or capability. As a result, Dinnington lost their cohesion and Selby took advantage to get on top territorially. Unfortunately their back line profligacy continued though as several excellent chances to put the game out of Dinnington’s reach were wasted, with only another solitary Cruise penalty registered, after a great defensive turnover from Ramsay and Jay Robinson, to take the score to 20-10 with twenty minutes to play.

With the game continuing to be scrappy, at least an air of good old-fashioned feistiness continued to prevail to keep supporters of both sides happy - and this seemed to better galvanise Dinnington to renew their efforts for the remained of the half as they forwent any backline extravagance to batter upfield through their big forward. However, with Tom Edwards and Parkinson in the forwards, and Webster in the backs, immense in Selby’s defence, the Dinnington surges were repelled – until right at the death they crashed over for a fully deserved bonus-point earning try and final score of 20-17.

The First team now have a week off, but Selby RUFC are hosting Yorkshire Academy against Newcastle Academy at 12:00 at Sandhill Lane on Saturday - before Selby’s Third and Fourth teams show the youngsters the Art of Coarse Rugby at 14:25 against selected opposition.