Wharfedale v Selby in the YCR2 (Plate)

Selby travelled to Wharfedale’s Grassington ground for this Yorkshire Plate match re-arranged from the previous week. The first half was extremely closely matched. The Selby forwards were dominant in rucks and mauls, creating possession and gaining territory but, although they came close a couple of times the backs weren’t able to convert the possession to points. Wharfedale’s backs, when they did get the ball, advanced quickly, but a combination of handling errors and some excellent tackling, particularly from Sam Perrin, prevented them from scoring. The end of the first half – very enjoyable to watch for both sets of supporters – came without any score. The second half started in similar vein with neither team dominant in the early few minutes. Luke Fisher came very close to touching down from a long, powerful run down the left wing but unfortunately the referee judged him to have dropped the ball on the line. With the game so finely balanced it was clear that whoever scored first would be likely to go on and win the game – and so it proved. 10 minutes into the second half Wharfedale’s persistence was rewarded as they, unusually, won a scrum against the head and their big second row forward punched through the Selby defence and touched down to score. From that point the away team’s spirits seem to sink and despite some strong ball-carrying runs from Alex Whitehead Wharfedale went on to score a further 3 tries. The score-line didn’t really reflect the closeness of the competition for three quarters of the match. The Selby team should be very proud of their performance in the first half but also reflect on how their loss of spirit, and some indiscipline, hampered their fight-back in the latter stages. Final score Wharfedale 22 Selby 0