Selby 27 Dinnington 5

On a perfect day for rugby the Green machine squad got smaller as the day went on.

6 players reported in unable to play leaving MDC Stoker with some difficult decisions.

Add to that a Dinington side who turned up with a set of very big forwards and a will to win and despite the sun shine it looked like being a hard day at the office for the Selby lads.

This was added to when the Dinnington coaches asked, if (as they had brought a large squad) the game could be played in three sessions to allow them to give all their lads a game. Selby as ever the generous hosts agreed, although hard face Harrison was heard to grumble about it in the background.

The warm up went well and then it was back to the changing room for a pep talk from the MDC.

The team realised they were in for a tough game but looked up for the challenge even though they were short of subs.

From the kick off Selby started with spirit and in the first min Harrison read a long pass from the Dinnington number ten and intercepted to sprint the 20 meters to score under the posts. Hunt made the conversion.

From the kick off the Selby forwards were committed and worked hard putting the Dinnington forwards under pressure. The scrums and line outs were an area where Selby took a dominate role. Despite the heavier Dinnington pack Selby won scrum after scrum causing the Dinnington 9 to feel the pressure and delay his put in. This only allowed Selby to further impose them selves at the set piece.

Line outs went the same way as Foster, Leighton and Raddings were dominant working well with Steward. Winning their own ball and disrupting the oppositions.

Both teams fought hard at the break down and were equally at fault for having hands in the ruck and playing the ball on the floor.

Selby also were making the mistake of trying to keep the ball alive when under pressure thus causing the ball to pop out on either side making the referring of the breakdown difficult and Selbys aim of ball retention impossible. Despite this Selby were winning the forward battle and staring to give the backs some good ball.

It was from a penalty at a ruck that Selby extended their lead with Dinnington giving away a penalty in front of the posts. Selby chose to take the kick and Hunt put the ball squarely between the posts.

With Wright working hard to give his backs quick ball Selby started to pin Dinnington back in their own half. From a drive down field Selby got quick ball out to the backs and Harrison made a good break to the right beat three men and popped a pass to Stoker who beat his opposite number to go over for a score.

Selby then got put firmly on the back foot for the next 5 mins as Dinnington surged forward to try and get a score back before half time and eventually Selby lost the ball at a ruck. Selby having over committed players to the ruck, Dinnington took the opportunity to make a good break with their second row taking advantage of some missed tackles to go over for a try in the corner.

First Third Score Selby 12 Dinnington 5

The Second third was a back and forth affair with neither side taking advantage of opportunities. Selby won the territory battle but on a number of occasions they broke free only for the last pass not to be made to Hogg who had an overlap out on the left wing.

With no changes in the line up in the tight five Selby were still dominate at the scrum.

In the backs Leetham had moved to full back to replace Genn who had played well in his first game in that position, Stoker moved to outside centre. Houson moved onto the right wing and Begg came on for Hogg.

It looked like the deadlock would not be broken as Selby were not moving the ball wide, quickly enough and Dinnington were defending like tigers.

So given they were having trouble running the ball Selby went to a practised move from the backs. From another dominant scrum Hunt took the ball from Wright (who was now enjoying an armchair ride provided by his pack) and hoisted a hanging kick down field to the left wing where Stoker enjoyed the luck of the bounce to beat the Dinnington full back and to go over for a score. Hunt narrowly missed the difficult conversion.

Second Third Selby 17 Dinnington 5

With Selby now looking tired after a hard 40mins of Rugby coach Stoker finally had to ring the changes in the forwards. Lockett who had played an excellent game always being in the right place at the right time came off for a face injury, and Hicks came on in the second row.

Steward unusually for him came off injured and was replaced by Smith moving to hooker with McLoughlin coming for his first game as tight head.

Despite the changes the forwards held their own but slowly Dinnington who had made brought on a number of fresh legs started to apply the pressure.

As the forwards tired the Selby backs were tremendous, they may not have been as fluent in going forward but in defence in the last 15 mins they never stopped working in their efforts to slow down the Dinnington charge. Begg and Houson made excellent hits to bring down much bigger players. Harrison, Leetham, Stoker,Hunt and Wright ran and tackled none stop.

Despite this effort twice Dinnington made excellent runs taking advantage of Selby giving ball away at the breakdown, with the taller of their second rows bursting through only to find himself tackled by the Assassin, Foster who tracked back and in both cases made fantastic try saving tackles.

Selby were now fighting for their lives with a scrambling try line defence.

After clearing their lines they were unlucky to get penalised on the 22 meter line for hands in the ruck.

Dinnington lined up their big guns and ran a crash ball into the Selby defence. Every Selby player was now tackling as if their lives depended on it bodies were put on the line as the strove to keep out the blue wave. They forced Dinnington out for a line out that eventually broke following hits from the Selby backs that caused the ball to break lose here it was gathered by Wright who cleared down field .

Dinnington came back and again Selby held them back winning a scrum on the 5 meter line.

They won this Wright passed to Hunt who cleared down field Selby chased and with the backs tackling all over the field forced Dinnington to concede a line out.

From this Selby won the ball. It was Wright to Hunt who again used the cross field kick that had been so effective all day. Harrison followed up tackled the Dinnington retriever and from the ruck Raddings emerged with the ball. He broke in field and was brought down on the 5 meter line.

Dinnington retrieved the ball and tried to kick clear under pressure. The ball was recovered by Houson who broke for the line and then looped a pass out to Stoker who collected to run under the posts for the final try that was converted by Hunt.

Great game played in a great spirit by both sets of lads and it was closer than the score line suggested.