NORTHERN DIVISION YORKSHIRE LEAGUE DIVISION 1.
PONTEFRACT RUFC 38 – 29 SELBY RUFC

Referee – Mr. Mike Ramsden – North Yorkshire Society

This was a big game for Selby against a Pontefract side who had managed to win just the one game against Bridlington in the first League fixture of the season but in perhaps their worst performance of the season they managed to stumble to a 38 points to 29 defeat in a disorganised, error strewn performance where both sides were guilty of conceding ‘soft’ tries. Playing against the considerable wind in the first half, Selby managed to limit Pontefract to a 14 points to 12 advantage at the break – most of the Selby support, no doubt, would have thought that their team would have gone on to exploit the conditions and come away with a comfortable win, but it was not to be with Pontefract becoming stronger and more determined as the game progressed and fully deserving their 38 points to 29 bonus point victory.

Selby gave young Jacob Shellis his debut on the wing with Sam Weller still not recovered from injury and they suffered a major setback with stand out player of the season, Matthew Wood, unable to play because of illness. Mark Toye was drafted into the team at second row with Jacob Robinson filling the vacant number 8 slot and Alex Oliver switched to flanker.

The first half started disastrously for Selby with Pontefract exploiting the wind advantage and kicking deep into the Selby 22 and winning a scrum after the Selby defence knocked on – from the resultant scrum a Selby infringement was punished by the referee with a penalty try which fly half Glenn Boyd converted to give Pontefract a 7 points to nil lead in the 1st minute of the game. Pontefract could have gone further ahead 5 minutes later after Selby were penalised for ‘holding on’ but Boyd missed the penalty chance. Selby then gained a foothold in the opposition’s territory with centre Alex Arthur caught inches short of the try line after 13 minutes – however the pressure eventually told 4 minutes later with centre Teihana Brown touching down for the try – Josh Cruise missed a difficult conversion into the howling wind. Selby continued to pressure the Pontefract line but poor handling and wrong option taking prevented them from turning their pressure into points. Pontefract were reduced to 14 after 22 minutes with centre Craig Fawcett sent to the bin for 10 minutes with Selby taking advantage 7 minutes later with a smart try from centre Alex Arthur after receiving from a scrum 22 metres out and exploiting a huge gap in the Pontefract defence – Cruise converted to give Selby a 12 points to 7 lead. With Fawcett back on and Benjamin Booth replacing Jacob Robinson after 36 minutes, Pontefract once again started to pressurise the Selby defence, and as has happened so many times this season, Selby conceded a try just before the half time break when they knocked on after winning their own scrum on their 10 metre line – Pontefract took their scrum with fly half Boyd forced over the line for the try which he converted to give Pontefract a 14 points to 12 advantage in the 1st minute of added on time. Four minutes later Selby were down to 14 with flanker Alex Oliver yellow carded for a supposed late tackle but there were no further mishaps for Selby with the half time break arriving with Pontefract only 2 points ahead at 14 points to 12 and all to play for in the second half with Selby having the advantage of the elements.

The second half started in similar fashion to the first with Selby taking the ball from the Pontefract kick off but instead of using the wind to their advantage they tried to run the ball out of defence but made an unforced error conceding the scrum to Pontefract who once again pressurised the Selby line – and once again an indiscretion from Selby earned Pontefract their second penalty try of the match with Boyd kicking the extras to put Pontefract in front by 21 points to 12. With Oliver back on after his yellow card, Selby were now attacking the Pontefract line with the ball spread wide to the backs – a poor pass was kicked through the Pontefract defence rather than caught with full back Dan Porter being the recipient of a soft try (from Pontefract’s perspective) after winning the race to touch down – Cruise kicked an excellent conversion to bring Selby back to within 2 points of Pontefract. However Pontefract came steaming back with their forwards now gaining the upper hand with Boyd scoring his second try but missing the conversion to give his side a 26 points to 19 lead. Selby then made a double change with James Blaymire (making his first appearance of the season) replacing Toye and Jacob Shellis making way for Charlton McCoy after 50 minutes. However this made little difference to the way the game was going with Pontefract extending their lead to 33 points to 19 with a try from winger Jordan Gill converted by Boyd after 56 minutes. Another yellow card for Pontefract after 61 minutes, with Matthew Hargreaves the offender this time, helped the Selby cause with Cruise converting a penalty 2 minutes later and then Dan Porter scoring his second try after 71 minutes with Cruise kicking an excellent conversion from the touchline to bring Selby back to within 4 points of Pontefract. With Pontefract back to full strength and their forwards dominating, the final nail in the Selby coffin was provided with a try by flanker Guy Picketts in the 79th minute and although the conversion was missed by Boyd, the victory belonged to Pontefract by 38 points to 29 with Selby only managing 1 bonus point for scoring 4 tries. Selby stay in 9th position in Yorkshire 1 but with both Heath and Bridlington also winning, the bottom placed clubs are starting to catch up and Selby need to start stringing a few victories together to climb back into the top half of the table.

Next Saturday, Selby host York in arguably the biggest game of the season at Sandhill Lane Kick Off 1415 hours. They will have to play much better than this to get back to winning ways.