NORTHERN DIVISION YORKSHIRE LEAGUE DIVISION 2.

SELBY RUFC 27 – 35 DONCASTER PHOENIX RUFC

PLAYED SATURDAY 17 NOVEMBER 2012

Referee – Mr. Richard Smith – West Yorkshire Society

In a thrilling encounter at Sandhill Lane, Selby came up against a very well organised and committed Phoenix side in a game that in the end could have been won, should have resulted in a losing bonus point for Selby but in the end was lost to the better team on the day and probably the best team Selby have encountered so far.

With prop Andrew Pocklington unavailable and second row forward Rob Triffitt calling off because of illness, skipper Duncan Hardy moved from 8 to prop with Martin Protheroe starting at number 8 and Ollie O’Brien called into the side at flanker. Ben Booth and Charlton McCoy came on to the bench.

In front of a big crowd, Phoenix came out the more determined and fired up but most of the early play was centred on the Phoenix 30 metre line with Josh Cruise missing the first opportunity for points, pulling a penalty attempt wide after 5 minutes. Phoenix scored with their first attack and first foray into Selby territory when poor tackling allowed full back Craig Deakin to link up with his backs and to touch down with number 10 Dan Storey converting after 9 minutes. Selby reduced their arrears after 22 minutes with a penalty from Cruise following this up 8 minutes later with a wonderful try from second row forward Matthew Wood under the posts after Dan Porter, Josh Greenfield and Ollie Saunders had put together some excellent inter-passing to create the opportunity – Josh Cruise added the extras to give Selby a 10 points to 7 lead. Despite being in the lead it was never comfortable for the home support with Phoenix always looking dangerous and capable of scoring tries and they were soon back in front when a missed tackle gifted Craig Deakin with his second try, this time unconverted, after 34 minutes. Selby conceded their 3rd try on the stroke of half time with centre Ollie Vidgeon touching down and Dan Storey adding the conversion giving Phoenix a 19 points to 10 advantage at the interval.

After 5 minutes of the second half Mark Tanner and Charlton McCoy replaced Tom Bell and Ollie Saunders but Phoenix increased their lead after 50 minutes with a Dan Storey penalty. Within 2 minutes Selby were seriously back in the game when North of England Under 18 trialist McCoy ran the ball from the Selby 5 metre line, selling an excellent dummy before feeding Cruise who kicked over the Phoenix defence for full back Dan Porter to win the race for the touch down over a hesitant Phoenix defence – with Cruise adding the conversion Selby were within 5 points of Phoenix at 17 points to 22. Selby were then guilty of conceding another penalty within kicking range of the excellent Dan Storey who made no mistake with his kick. There then followed a 3 minute hold-up to enable the Yorkshire Air Ambulance to land to ferry Selby’s 3rd XV player Dan White to hospital with what was thought at the time to be a very serious injury (fortunately Dan has since been released from Hospital after the injury turned out to not be as serious as first feared). On the resumption of play Selby brought their deficit down to a single point with Matthew Wood scoring his second try in the 69th minute after stealing a Phoenix 5 metre lineout and burrowing over for the try and Josh Cruise kicking an excellent conversion – 25 points to 24 to Phoenix. Selby then went in front for the second time in the match with a Cruise penalty after Phoenix replacement Joe Horrocks was yellow carded. Selby, however, conceded another kickable penalty after 76 minutes with Dan Storey making no mistake with an inch perfect kick – 28 points to 27 to Phoenix. On the stroke of full time indiscipline probably cost Selby at least a losing bonus point when a Selby forward was yellow carded and a penalty decision reversed which meant that instead of being able to pressure the Phoenix line, Selby were pinned back in their own 10 metre area with Phoenix taking full advantage of their extra man when skipper and number 8 Ryan Peacey went over for the try – Storey kicked another excellent conversion to put Selby 8 points behind and out of reach of the losing bonus point.

Selby now drop to 4th position in Yorkshire 2 and have lost 3 of their last 4 League fixtures. With an away game at Castleford next Saturday, a home fixture at Sandhill Lane against Bradford Salem on 8 December and an away fixture at Leodiensian the week after, Selby need to get back to winning ways if their promotion hopes are to be realised in what is turning out to be a very tight division.