YORKSHIRE DIVISION 1
SELBY RUFC 20 v 17 HEATH RUFC

Report by Ray Adamson.

Having blitzed the opposition in the first quarter of this game, opening up a 17-0 lead, Selby were ultimately relieved to come away with a win as the visitors from Halifax began to expose frailties in the home side and dominated the scoring in the second half.

Within 4 minutes of kick off Full Back Josh Cruise had opened the scoring with a penalty, one of four successful kicks. Within the next 10 minutes Selby got themselves into a match-winning position as first Ben Lunt and then Pete Turner crossed for tries which showed just how potent an attacking force Selby can be when they play with ball in hand and retain possession for any length of time. With 2 successful conversions by Josh Cruise Selby were perhaps lulled into a false sense of security as the visitors began to get a foothold in the game.

The only other incident of note in the first half was the yellow card issued to the Heath Scrum-half after 31 minutes for kicking the ball back into the Scrum and then back-chatting referee Andy Hodgson. Despite their one man advantage Selby were unable to make it pay and the half time whistle was blown with no addition to the scoring,

Heath began the second half the stronger of the sides and were rewarded for their efforts with a try on 48 minutes by Mick Gleeson, the conversion by Ezra Hinchliffe reducing the deficit to 10 points. Buoyed by their opening score the visitors soon established superiority over a mis-firing Selby side who were guilty of kicking possession away too often, so giving Heath the opportunity to show what they were capable of. A second try for the visitors after 60 minutes reduced the gap to just one score as Hinchliffe was unable to convert and Selby were grateful for Cruise's successful penalty 8 minutes from time to give them the relative comfort of a 2 score advantage. Not to be outdone Heath kept hammering away at the Selby defence and gained themselves a deserved bonus point right at the death courtesy of a Sam Pollard try which again went unconverted by Hinchliffe.

Whilst Heath will want to reflect on the damage caused by their slow start, Selby will also need to work hard on their own deficiencies and use the structures that play to their obvious strengths for the challenges that lie ahead. Coach Richard Nicholson will be reasonably happy with the discipline as only 7 penalties were conceded in the whole game and none in a kickable position, but will no doubt impress upon his players the need to improve composure and the accuracy of their game and to have confidence in their ability to create scoring opportunities by playing with the ball in hand rather than kicking possession away.