Aireborough colts travelled to Sandhill lane in a hastily arranged fixture caused by another club unable to raise a squad.
Captain Tehan leading the swans in beautiful sunshine and was instrumental in the first ten minutes of utter dominance from Selby. From the Borough kick off, Selby moved the ball with ease, phase after phase, with the forwards gaining steady ground. With under 5 minutes on the clock a quick thinking longer pass from Kealey missed out a centre allowed Janus over for the first try of the game. Kealey stepped up to convert with ease.
Credit to Aireborough, their dogged defence needed to be on point as Selby pressed hard for another. Green, making his return after injury forcing an overturn that very nearly resulted in points, backed up by a very safe pair of hands in Cresham catching a looping up and under from the clearance kick.
Despite owning the game, Selby failed to extend the lead and were guilty of not playing to the whistle for Aireborough’s first. Assuming a forward pass had been committed, both teams almost stopped, with the visitors first to react. This was not converted. From the restart Nycek took a strong player into touch to win a lineout, but this was overturned resulting in Borough camping out in the Selby half. Kierans held up a try but the visitors’ solid front row were relentless. In a rare outing into the other half Sibley’s grubber kick was milometers from Cresh’s grasp before Massam, Chandler and Langhon’s defence was once again necessary to repel the visiting pack. With no way through the Selby wall, quick hands brought the wingers into action for two quick tries, both converted.
At half time the score was 7-19
The onslaught from the very fit visitors continued with the excellent Tehan and Kierans once again holding up a try. Frustrated by the dogged defence, Selby had clearly got under the visitor’s skin as they lost a little discipline. Bugg was on the end of some ‘afters’, as well as words exchanged amongst the players. All credit to the Buggy and the Selby players, for not retaliating. Sensing no gain in the forwards, the Aireborough number 10 moved the ball skilfully to both wings and produced a beautiful dummy to quickly extend the lead to 7-36. Reduced to 14 men after Massam’s high tackle, Selby regrouped and started to play like they did in the first ten minutes, with Janus picking the ball up from a ruck and powering over. Kealey dutifully converted. Aireborough were not done as another masterful pass allowed their final score of the day. Langhorn was rewarded for his strong performance with a consolation try. Not long after he had muscled over the whistle went with the final score 19-43.
Selby can take many positives and Coach Stoker was keen to remind the squad of how far they have come since September. Ultimately the best team won on the day.
Next week the Colts return to league action with a trip to Ripon.