Ugly win eked out by Selby RUFC (From York Press)

Ugly win eked out by Selby RUFC

9:51am Monday 1st October 2012 in Sport

DESPITE an uninspiring game – spoiled by an over-zealous referee – Selby RUFC won ugly, their 21-10 triumph at Moortown reinforcing their leadership of Yorkshire Two.

Selby played with the advantage of a strong wind blowing straight down the pitch but fell behind to a penalty from Mark Wilkinson, in the fifth minute.

Josh Cruise, replied in kind after ten minutes with Selby down to 14 after hooker Greenfield was yellow carded. Another two penalties from Cruise extended the advantage held by the visitors, who were further disrupted with the loss of Mitchell Knowles with an hamstring injury.

An excellent try from winger Ollie Saunders heartened Selby, who were again down to 14 men with James Blaymire yellow-carded.

Now against the elements, Selby had to defend superbly with stand-out forwards being the second row pairing of Karim Brown and Matthew Wood.

It wasn’t until 71 minutes that either team troubled the scoreboard – Selby’s Martin Protheroe going over under the posts for Cruise to convert and put Selby 21-3 up.

Several more try-scoring opportunities were spurned in the last ten minutes before Moortown scored a soft consolation try in added on time.

Front-runners Selby next face a stern test with a visit to the unbeaten Sheffield side Sheffield Medicals.