W 10-27

By Dave Campbell

Despite early pressure by hosts Selby and the loss of two players injured in the opening quarter of an hour, Scarborough moved into the semi-finals of  the Yorkshire Shield with a four try to one win on a cold autumanal afternoon at Springhill Lane.

Selby bossed the opening exchanges of a lively encounter and their small but cohesive pack dominated the early scrums where a shakey visiting tight five was under pressure from the start. However in the loose the Scarborough forwards were a different proposition where their hard-tackling back row knocked the Selby attackers back time and time again as they pressed in the visitors’ 22.

With the lost of second row Matty Oxtoby and influential young scrum-half Jordi Wakeham with less than 15 minutes on the clock, Coach Simon Smith brought on Jack Anderson on the wing and moved winger Jonty Holloway to fullback with Jim Perrett replacing Wakeham at scrum-half. Up front Mikey Whitton came on for Oxtoby.

Playing down the slight slope, Selby had the upper hand but their lack of midfield penetation and composure made it look increasingly unlikely that they would captialize on their pressure. However their dominant pack forced a scrum penalty from the Seasiders five minutes before the interval and full back Scott Hunt made no mistake for a deserved 3-0 lead.

Stung into action Scarborough stepped up a gear winning a series of rucks mid-way in the Selby half and quick hands wide on their left in the home 22 saw stand-in fullback Jonty Holloway glide over in the 36^th minute to snatch back the lead at 5-3. Selby momentarily lost their composure following that score as an unforced error from the re-start was compounded by a penalty handing the initiative back to Scarborough.

The Seasiders maintained the pressure with stand-in scrum-half Jim Perrett urging his mobile forwards on before loose-head Nino Cutino drove over in the 39^th minute. Fly-half Tom Ratcliffe converted and added a penalty in the 40^th minute for a 15-3 half-time lead.

That late flurry of scoring from the visitors and the margin at the break did’nt really reflect Selby’s efforts in the first 40 minutes of the game; however the Seasiders are a far more clinical outfit making two chances and finishing both.

Scarborough brought on substitute Paul Taylor at half time and the burly tight-head stabilized the front row resulting in a parity in possession and consequetly the side looked far sharper playing on the front foot. And they went further ahead in the 55^th minute when a break by Perrett took them deep into the Selby half and slick inter-passing between the Aussie and Aaron Wilson (up in support) saw the latter thunder over for a trademark Wilson try. Ratcliffe failed to convert but the Seasiders led 20-3.

Selby had a third quarter to forget with their ball retentation and handling letting them down; however having won the ball on half-way they went through the phases before spreading the play wide and as Scarborough ran out of numbers wingman Ash Dallimore sprinted over in the corner in the 72^th minute. Fullback Scott Hunt added the extras with a superb touchline conversion to reduce the arrears to ten points at 20-10.

Having given themselves a chance, fireworks were expected from the home side in the eight remaining  minutes with everything to play for but it was the visitors who dominated play with Taylor, Nino Cutino, hooker Sam Dawson and centre Billy Parker breaking the gain line as a determined home side tired.

In the gathering gloom the Seasiders clinched the game and booked themselves a home semi-final against Beverley with a late try from substitute Jack Anderson who stepped on the gas to power over wide on the right and cut in to score near the uprights. The ever-reliable Tom Ratcliffe converted to settle the issue at 27-10.

Selby is never an easy place to come to and Scarborough have on occassions, come a cropper there; however this was certainly not one of them and although the home side made an excellent start, they failed to capitalize on it. Scarborough never looked back after the introduction of Paul Taylor which changed the game. Aaron Wilson, Ben Martin and Drew Govier took the plaudits in the forwards. Behind them Perrett, Ratcliffe, Parker, Holloway and Harry  Domett put in big shifts on the afternoon.

Scarborough

Tries: holloway, cutino, wilson, anderson

Conversions: ratcliffe 2

Penalties: ratcliffe

Selby

Tries: dallimore

Penalties: hunt

Teams

Scarborough: perrett holloway white parker domett ratcliffe wakeham cutino dawson jones oxtoby watson wilson d.govier martin
Substitutes: whitton taylor e.govier anderson

Selby: hunt dallimore lunt mccoy cruise goldsworthy lazenby hardy mccoy tunningley langhan hebden levett parkinson cicerso
Substitutes: bingle mcloughlin booth phillips

Scarborough News "Man of the Match": jim perrett

There were several contenders for man of the match with Paul Taylor influential when he joined the fray after the break. The Seasiders’ trio of young loose forwards was outstanding but Jim Perrett having been moved from fullback to the pivotal scrum-half role following Jordi Wakeham’s early departure was sharp and incisive and involved in the build-up to all four of his side’s tries.