Yarnbury 36 Selby 19

YARNBURY boosted their hopes of avoiding relegation from Yorkshire One by defeating fellow strugglers Selby to climb out of the bottom two.

Yarnbury form has picked up in the last two months but a convincing home win was overdue.

Coach Bob Hood was delighted to welcome back experienced wing forward Joe Bennett against a big visiting pack.

Yarnbury had a strong bench with forwards James Falgate, Russ Gomersall and prop John Dodgson ready to come on to give maximum strength to counter the Selby pack.

The home side's first half performance was impressive on a soft pitch after incessant rain.

Yarnbury took the fight to Selby and forced them into a series of errors.

Stand-off Kieran Davies opened the scoring with a penalty soon after full back Will Marshall and winger Jack Brown just failed to touch down a kick through on the right.

He then missed another similar kick at goal but landed two more on 22 and 26 minutes following a yellow card for Selby centre Alex Webster for persistent offside by referee Mike Ramsey who was managing the game expertly.

Yarnbury were working the ball wide when the opportunities allowed after securing good but slow possession in the mud.

Selby were defending well in the middle of the park but Yarnbury worked the ball first left and then right for winger Jack Brown to eventually outstrip the cover and score an outstanding team try after 33 minutes. Davies added the conversion.

It was no more than the attacking play of the home side deserved, particularly the pack who kept the pressure on the Selby side.

Yarnbury had thrown off the shackles of defeat and were playing with confidence which has been growing over the last two months.

Davies kicked another penalty from wide right on the stroke of half time to stretch the Yarnbury lead to 22-0.

All they needed now was three more tries for a five-point win.

Unfortunately, their dominance waned after the break, as Selby came out as a team transformed.

They put down their marker in the ten minutes after the break with two tries.

The first was scored by second row Mark Tanner after a succession of forward carries.

Scrum half Danny Wilkinson then broke away from a ruck before kicking ahead and winning the race for the line.

Full back Josh Cruise converted both impressively and suddenly the Yarnbury dominance was tested.

Thankfully, normal service was resumed by the three-quarters with a sweeping move out right which saw full back Will Marshall come into the line and score. Davies was successful with the conversion.

Selby were not finished and and scored a third try set up by the pack for forward James Hunt to touch down despite good Yarnbury defence.

Yarnbury's and final try was scored by Davies which he converted to seal his side's 36-19 victory.