Selby lost out to a determined West Leeds team on Saturday and suffered their first defeat by the narrowest of margins.

Selby visited West Leeds on what was a good day for rugby with intent on what should have been an exciting clash with second place league contenders but it wasn’t to be.

Although riding high in the league West Leeds had nothing much to offer with Selby dominant in the Scum and Lineout, in the forwards and in the backs, Selby always looking threatening and causing problems out wide where the two Selby tries were scored.

Selby took the early lead with a penalty struck by Cruise from just in side the oppositions half to put Selby 3 points ahead, then it was kick kick kick for the following 20 mins until Selby managed to construct a try from deep in its own half for Porter to score.

Four minutes later Tom Burnell returned the favour for West Leeds levelling the score at 8 each.

On 37 mins Lunt added to Selby’s tally with a well worked try again out wide that earned him Selby’s Man of the Match. The whistle blew to end the first half at 48 minutes.

With Selby dominant in most areas of the game they should have been out of sight by half time but the home pitch played well for the home team and the West Leeds kicker took full advantage of Selby’s errors.

The second half started with the score at Selby 13 – 11 West Leeds and all to play for, Cruise edged Selby ahead with a penalty kick only for West Leeds to then be awarded yet another penalty kick to keep the gap to within 2 points.

With the score now at Selby 16 – 14 West Leeds, the Selby supporters felt the inevitability of more penalties and true to form on the 69th minute West Leeds took a swan point lead to steal the lead and a win.

This was a game that Selby could have and should have won however the game was plagued with a bewildering number of unexplained penalties that left both teams and supporters confused and it was Selby that suffered the most from this.

Over the coming weeks Selby will be working hard to lower its penalty count and work with officials to eliminate any inconsistencies they endure from week to week. Selby remain league leaders with a 3 point lead and will be aiming to get back on the winning trail against West Park Leeds at Sandhill Lane next Saturday with a 3pm kick off, all support is very welcome. Come on the fortress lets see a big turn out for the Sandhill Laners