Selby 2nds Complete the Double over Goole 2nds

It was local derby day, when 3 teams from Selby RUFC played local rivals Goole RUFC. A rare occurrence these days in the game of rugby union but a testament to Selby and Goole clubs for creating a family oriented culture from micros to senior rugby.

Saturday was another bench mark for the Selby 2nd team, making it 2 wins for the season over local rivals Goole RUFC writes Paul Gabel. Traveling to Goole is always a challenge as you never know what to expect from the home side.

Goole have been transformed over the last 6-7 years and produced some great performances, with free flowing rugby, under the leadership of the coaching staff, starting with Gregg Bone a few years ago, who took them to Twickenham in a National Cup final.

The game started with the strong wind in Selby’s favour but as it would play out, was no advantage to them in the first half. Goole were certainly up for a battle of the forwards with the ball up the jumper attitude which would prove to be all they had in their arsenal with the ball reaching the Goole wingers only a few times throughout the match.

Goole were playing phase after phase down the middle of the pitch, however, the Selby lads, and as a team, were for the most, a solid wall. Each and every player stood up to the barrage of phases Goole were sending Selby’s way. The game was largely in favour of Goole and inevitably they would cross the Selby line on the 20 minute mark. This was only after working their way up the field with several phases of play, which allowed them to gain the meters putting Selby players out of position in defence and a repeat performance would result in them crossing again 5 minutes later making the score 10-0 after 28 minutes of play.

Selby forwards and backs were resilient and great defensive work, in particular from S Campbell (pack leader), J Todd and A Brown who seemed to be everywhere all the time making the kind of tackle that make you go ‘ouch that must have hurt’ time after time and made Goole work hard for the two tries so far.

When Selby had ball in hand, Goole was able to turn Selby over after only a couple of phases, a knock on or forward pass would allow Goole back in the game. You could see that Selby were not firing on all cylinders in the first half and knew that the game would either drift away in Goole’s favour or Selby would wake up and grab the game and out play Goole to seal a win.

As the half drew to a close Selby expanded the game towards the wings and with E Blackwell having a solid game (both in attack and defence) who distributed the ball at the right time and place allowed the backs to skirt through the Goole side, who were now looking tired from 30 minutes of forward phase rugby and allowed P Keetley to finish off a great passage of play with Selby’s first score of the game, which was converted by J Dugher making the half time score of 10-7.

Listening to the half time team talk by J Skelton and W Stoker, you could see how proud they were of the team. Although loosing at this point, they knew that it was Selby’s game and hammered home the focus of keep playing the patterns and absorbing the attacks delivered by Goole and victory would prevail.

The second half started with a silly mistake by Selby allowing Goole a gifted try 5 minutes in, making the scoreboard look flattering to Goole at this point. A game of rugby is decided at one point during the game, this could be in the first minute or last and you could see that this was the minute where Goole fell down and Selby stood up.

Under the direction of E Blackwell, who was having his best game of the season so far, was able to gain the advantages by making the right decisions at the right time. Utilising the forwards and backs to gain territory and allowing P Keetley to score his second try for Selby around the 50 minute mark, converted by J Dugher, bringing the score 15-14 and all to play for.

Selby played a stormer of a game in the second half, it was never an easy game as Goole know how to play rugby but they were running on empty and you could see this in the players demeanour. The game was Selby’s and were playing with skill, determination but not arrogance, as they respected the opposition. Good forwards play from Case, Hatfield-Green, Harrison and Liddle making the hard meters to allow the backs of Cook, T Gabel, Young and Hodder to push the game deep into the Goole half putting pressure on them and creating the opportunity for further tries.

B Bell was the next to take the opportunity and was the end result of the whole team effort making the score 15-21 putting Selby in the lead for the first time after J Dugher’s conversion. Goole were tired but never gave up, having limited ball did not allow them to gain the momentum they needed and were playing more like individuals rather than a team. Selby were a team and played as such. Mander, Dodsworth, Aveyard with fresh legs fitted into the team as if they had started and contributed accordingly, boosting Selby’s hunger for the tries and continued a solid defence.