Wath on Dearne RUFC 21 v 7 Selby RUFC

Report by Ray Adamson

Despite dominating the battle for territory Selby were unable to break down a well organised Wath defence and eventually succumbed to a second League defeat, having conceded tries in injury time at the end of both halves. Despite several unavailability’s Selby still took a squad capable of competing and nobody present could fault their efforts against a sizable Wath side.

Heavily outweighed up front, the Selby forwards struggled for possession at set piece and hard won ball was too often kicked away in a tense first half hour. It was with Wath's first real attack into the Selby half that the home side opened the scoring on 31 minutes. A clean line-out take set the platform for an excellent off load from scrum half Bartlett which allowed Number 8 Matthew Burrows to cross near the posts, giving Barrett a straightforward conversion. Although Selby hit back straight away and won a penalty the deficit remained at 7 points when Josh Cruise failed to hit the target for the first time this season.

Wath returned to the attack and were able to establish a hold in the Selby 22 as the half drew to a close and with the last move, deep into injury time, the home forwards drove Number 8 Burrows over the Selby line for his second try of the afternoon. The successful conversion by Burrows signalled the end of the half with the home team holding a 14 point lead despite their few attacking opportunities.

Within 10 minutes of the re-start Selby were able to close the gap to 7 points when a bout of sustained pressure in the Wath half at last allowed the Selby backs to show their worth, a perfectly weighted pass from centre Iain Adamson creating the chance for Ben Lunt to cross out wide. Cruise struck an excellent conversion from close to the touchline and the nature of the game changed as Selby continued to dominate territory and went looking for further scores. Winger Jack Guest just failed to make the line after 67 minutes and as pressure mounted the home side conceded another penalty on 70 minutes but unfortunately for the visitors Cruise was again unable to hit the target.

Following the unsuccessful attempt at goal, Wath took control and worked their way downfield where they spent most of the rest of the game. With full time approaching, a speculative kick into the Selby 22 was easily retrieved but a stray pass ended up conceding possession to Wath and with the clock showing 89 minutes played, Selby's defence was breached again with Adam West crossing for the try which robbed Selby of the losing bonus point which their efforts had deserved. Barrett hit the conversion with the last kick of the game to give the home side a somewhat flattering margin of victory by 21 points to 7.

Major plusses for Selby were the performance on debut by 17 year old Jordan McCoy in the second row and the ability to dominate territorially despite being starved of possession at the set piece. There is no doubt that, given parity of possession, Selby's young team have the pace, vision and skill to cause major problems for any team's defence but need to keep working on providing that base to work from and the accuracy to convert opportunities.