A big crowd watched on despite the weather as the game started scrappy, with both teams making uncharacteristic mistakes. 10 minutes in, the ball travelled through three sets of hands before reaching Jack Hudson who ran in from the half way line, but failed to convert. The first half continued to be scrappy due to the wet conditions, Selby leading 5-0 at half time.

Ripon struck first in the second half, passing down the back line inside Selby’s half and scoring round the outside, missing the conversion. Forwards continued to keep the wet ball, before Frankie Sowesby managed to find Prakash Veerasamy steam rolling through the Ripon forwards running in from 60 metres to score, conversion missed. For the next 10 minutes, Ripon dominated possession, camped inside Selby’s half winning multiple penalties and building pressure, but the outstanding Selby defence refused to be beaten, notably Kyle Vause making a try saving tackle on the wing, before dominant forwards Luke Moseley and William Elworthy turned the ball over at the ruck with Jacob Kingswood running from the Selby try line to half way before winning a penalty.

With both sides tiring and the ball becoming harder to control by the minute, Selby forwards was yet again carrying ball after ball into the Ripon forwards, before Oliver Spink spotted an opportunity to sprint down the right wing, shrugging Ripon’s exhausted defence off with a great hand off and scoring under the posts. Jack Hudson converted to make the final score 17-5 to the home team, progressing Selby into the next round of the cup.

Next up for the U14’s is a home game against Morley on Sunday 6th.