Boys Under 13 v Sheffield RUFC

Sunday saw Selby U13s play host to Sheffield U13s, with honours even from their previous two meetings this season. Selby kicked off but then it was all downhill for the first ten minutes. The form that had seen the Cygnets win 4 of their last 6 games seemed to have deserted them. With Selby still asleep Sheffield touched down within the first minute, quickly adding a second from a turned-over ruck and a third when the home team watched the South Yorkshire side’s big forward run straight through the defence to score. 10 minutes into the game the Selby lads started to wake up and, thanks to strong performance in the scrums, started to win some possession; Archie Bennett collected the ball from the back of the scrum, passing out to Hedley Benn-Harris who cleverly jinked through the Sheffield defence to pull a score back for Selby. In the last few minutes of the first half Selby’s sloppy defence allowed Sheffield in for two more easy tries.
The second half started more positively for the home team with Selby turning over possession in the ruck, Joseph Styrin powering into the Sheffield defence off-loading to the backs who moved the ball out to full-back Sam Perrin to score. Weak Selby defence, however, allowed the away team to retaliate and score almost immediately. To their credit the Cygnets didn’t give up and before long gained possession from a Sheffield scrum with Noah Dobson adding another try, which was followed a few plays later with the first try of the season for Dan Lewis after a strong performance in the backs. With Sheffield scoring once more before full time the South Yorkshire team registered a clear win. After 3 months of very strong performances this game should act as a reminder to Selby that they must be ready to play from the first whistle and cannot afford to stand off tackles and let teams run at them – they scored more points than their opposition in the second half but the game was lost in the first 10 minutes.