Selby RUFC beat West Park Leeds 32-24 (From York Press)

Selby RUFC beat West Park Leeds 32-24

10:33am Monday 4th March 2013 in Rugby Union

SELBY RUFC resisted a West Park Leeds fightback as they won 32-24 to stay firmly in the Yorkshire Two promotion race.

The home side hit back from 24-3 down at half-time to trail 27-24 with two minutes remaining, but the Swans closed out the game.

Selby trailed 3-0 after only three minutes when an offside offence was punished by the boot of West Park fly-half Phil Davies.

The visitors responded on nine minutes when the ball was spread wide for centre Iain Adamson to score in the corner.

On 26 minutes, a quick penalty caught the Leeds defence cold with skipper Duncan Hardy scoring the try.

Another tap penalty on 34 minutes saw Adamson score his second try, with Josh Cruise kicking an excellent conversion.

Number eight Martin Protheroe ran in unopposed for Selby’s fourth – and bonus point – try after 38 minutes and Cruise’s conversion put Selby 24-3 in front.

Swans prop Tom Bell was shown a yellow card deep into added on time and he was joined in the sin-bin by man of the match James Blaymire on 45 minutes.

West Park took advantage with a try by scrum-half Will Morecombe, with Davies adding the extras.

Leeds cut the deficit by another seven points with a try from prop Tom Stott converted by Davies.

Centre Alex Arthur then became the third Selby player to receive a yellow card, but the visitors regained some momentum.

Selby took a ten-point lead with a Cruise penalty in the 67th minute and, despite a 78th minute converted try by Leeds’ Ollie Trace, full-back Dan Porter made the game safe in injury time.

Fifth-placed York were 29-14 winners at home to Ilkley in Yorkshire One – a result which moved them to within eight points of their beaten visitors.

Meanwhile, York RI put in a much improved display against Hemsworth, dominating the set scrums, despite suffering a 26-12 Yorkshire Three defeat at New Lane.

The visitors opened the scoring on 11 minutes against run of play and a second converted try made it 14-0 at the break.

RI were caught again early in the second half to go 21-0 behind, but they dug deep and Matt Hodson scored two wonderful tries, the first converted by Baptiste Briu, to give RI a glimmer of hope.

The hosts threw everything at Hemsworth, but were kept at bay by solid defending and a breakaway try five minutes into stoppage time made it 26-12.

A better display by RI was spearheaded by man of the match Craig Leeming.