A powerful Scunthorpe at Sandhill Lane

This week saw Selby U16’s entertain Scunthorpe at Sandhill lane in what was their first afternoon kick off of the season. Following kick off, the initial possession and play was in favour of a Selby side somewhat weakened with injuries to key players. Nevertheless the team set about the task with promise and vigour and were unlucky to concede first with a penalty in front of the posts duly converted by Scunthorpe. Upon the restart, Selby maintained their promising play and were the first to score a try with the fleet footed Cresham rampaging up the wing allowing Tehan to take possession then drive over to make the score 5-3. Kealey was unfortunate not to convert with a very good attempt from distance.

The remainder of the first half followed the same pattern, with Selby looking the better side but a tenacious Scunthorpe battling their way back into the game with a mixture of determination and some missed tackles from Selby. Their first try came following some good skill after a dummy was sold to the Selby back line allowing their player to score an unconverted try. They then followed this with two tries in quick succession after Selby conceded possession too easily from a ruck, then from an unfortunate incident where there appeared to be a knock-forward by a Scunthorpe player which went unpunished. This left the half time score at 5-22 and with Selby a bit of a mountain to climb.

The beginning of the second half saw Selby concede an early try after some strong running from the Scunthorpe Number 8, and then a second fortunate try which again followed an offside situation at a ruck which was also unpunished. Selby then suffered another setback as hooker Kierans was sin-binned for a high tackle. Nevertheless, Scunthorpe were good value for their 5-32 lead.

In the last 15 minutes Selby again took control of the game and ended it the way they started, with several positive attacks with wingers Tipping and Nycek combining with full back Sibley. Selby also applied themselves with Janus and Tehan trying to power through after being awarded penalties, the latter seeing a Scunthorpe player sin-binned for a “no arms” tackle. But it was too little too late by the time powerful centre Janus scored what turned out to be a consolation try for the home side, converted by Bugg.

Player of the match was awarded to back-row Tehan.