NORTHERN DIVISION YORKSHIRE LEAGUE DIVISION 1.
ILKLEY RFC 25 – 17 SELBY RUFC

Referee – Mr. Adam Carter – South Yorkshire Society

Selby’s miserable record against Ilkley, whom they have never beaten in a competitive League encounter, continued on Saturday with a 25 points to 17 defeat. Selby played as poorly, for the first 60 minutes of this match, as they have for some time but only found themselves in arrears by 8 points to nil at the break when Ilkley will have been disappointed not to have been out of sight. A disastrous start to the second half saw Selby fall behind by 20 points to nil and it was 25 points to nil near the end of the third quarter. Selby then started to show what they are capable of and 3 tries in the last quarter, one of which was converted, brought them agonisingly close to securing a losing bonus point, something they probably didn’t deserve.

With fly half Josh Cruise unavailable, Dan Porter started at 10 with Iain Adamson filling the vacant full back berth. Flanker Jacob Robinson had to drop out of the selected 15 having failed to recover from an ankle injury – young Charlie Cicero started in his place with Martin Protheroe, Mark Tanner and Alex Hare on the substitute’s bench.

Selby took the kick off but then had to do some desperate defending as Ilkley dominated the early proceedings with Craig Barker, the Ilkley centre, missing a very kickable penalty in the 7th minute. However a minute later he put Ilkley in front with an unmissable penalty chance in front of the posts. It was still all Ilkley – another Ilkley attack saw the ball lost near the Selby line after 18 minutes – 8 minutes later the unfortunate Barker had to be carried from the field with a serious looking injury – later diagnosed as a broken ankle. Barker’s misfortune was replacement Tom Collard’s opportunity and his first touch of the ball produced the try that Ilkley had been threatening to score since kick off. Good work by the Ilkley forwards set up a sweeping move which found Collard out wide on the left stepping inside the Selby defender to touch down for the try – the same player missed the conversion. Mark Tanner and Martin Protheroe replaced Andrew Pocklington and Charlie Cicero respectively at this point but Ilkley continued to dominate - however unforced errors from Ilkley and a determined Selby defence prevented any further score although Ilkley did have a penalty chance on the stroke of half time but Josh Kimber’s attempt failed. The break came with Selby 8 points to nil in arrears after a half in which they had encroached into the Ilkley 22 on only one occasion, such was Ilkley’s dominance.

The second half started disastrously for Selby – after comfortably taking possession from the Ilkley kick off the ball was ripped from the grasp of a Selby forward by Kimber who offloaded to Ilkley winger Steve Nolson who went over the line under the posts to give Kimber an easy conversion. Straight from the Selby re-start, Ilkley ran the ball with Kimber again involved feeding full back Stuart Vincent who in turn offloaded to winger Paul Petchey who touched down in the corner for an unconverted try. Two minutes of the half gone and Selby had shipped 12 points and were now in arrears by 20 points to nil. Selby managed to avert further setbacks for the next 13 minutes with Pocklington back on for Bell, Charlie Cicero back on for Brendan Lanaghan and Alex Hare replacing Iain Adamson but it was still Ilkley who were calling all the shots going further in front after regaining a lost line-out on the Selby 10 metre line and driving toward the Selby line with number 8 Stewart Brewer forcing his way over for an unconverted try after 55 minutes to give Ilkley a seemingly unassailable 25 points to nil advantage. Four minutes later the whole balance of the match changed with Selby threatening the Ilkley line for the first time in the match reducing their arrears a minute later with an excellent try down the right flank by Alex Hare, his third in 2 substitute appearances. No conversion but Selby, at last, were showing what they were capable of. It was Ilkley who were now having to defend desperately and in doing so were conceding penalty after penalty. Bell was back on for Pocklington after 66 minutes with the Selby pressure paying off 7 minutes later with another excellent try down the other flank by winger Alex Arthur – again no conversion but the score-line was looking a little more respectable now. A yellow card for Tom Collard didn’t help the Ilkley cause with Selby continuing to crank up the pressure on the Ilkley defence. A worrying ankle injury to flanker Rihi Brown after 80 minutes brought Lanaghan back into the fray. Five minutes into added on time another excellent try, this time down the middle from the talismanic Martin Protheroe gave Porter an easy conversion and put Selby within a whisker of a losing bonus point but it was not to be, much to the relief of the now nervous Ilkley support. Had the match carried on for a further 5 minutes or so, who knows, Selby may well have done enough to have taken a win but this would have been a travesty and an injustice to an Ilkley side who had dominated proceedings for three quarters of the game. This defeat drops Selby from 5th to 8th position in Yorkshire 1 but such is the tightness of the League this season they are still only 6 points away from the top position.

Next Saturday Selby take on the still unbeaten Scarborough at Sandhill Lane – Kick Off 3 P.M. They will have to play much better than they did against Ilkley to spoil that record.