Selby 40 v Leos 3

Report by Peter Cooke
On an absolutely glorious day,Leos made the always difficult trip to Selby,to play the promotion favourites.Selby underlined their credentials,with an impressive opening day success at Hullensians,whilst Leos turned in a good second half performance to overcome Hegians.

Selby however,made only one change from their opening day squad,whilst y Leos had nine changes from their starting fifteen and included a further three debutants in the form of Robert Gamage,Joe Newcombe and Tom Willan.

Leos started encouragingly,with Newcombe being disruptive at the base of the scrum and Thompson being a threat in midfield.However,an early Henry penalty grazed the outside of the posts and Selby were looking composed in defence and dangerous with ball in hand.Selby put the first points on the board on 12mins,when after soaking up Leos pressure,they countered impressively to move the ball 60m and score in the right hand corner.

Leos enjoyed further pressure but lacked their usual attacking potency,against the structured home sides defence and were themselves forced to scramble in defence,with clearances from Henry and Moore and a terrific last ditch tackle from Baker.Chesters and Howells displayed strength in the forwards,but the tighter Selby unit were proving more effective at the breakdown.Dispite enjoying territorial advantage,Leos had nothing to show for their first half efforts and then on half time,a miss timed chip ahead,bounced fortuitously into the arms of the Selby winger,to give them a 10 point half time advantage.

The second half took a similar shape,with early Leos pressure,without really creating clear cut oppourtunities,although Henry cut the margin to 10 - 3 ,with a 45min penalty.However,the home side restored their 10 point margin with a similar effort on 51mins,before taking command,when their forwards drove over from a close range lineout and a second penalty on 65mins,to give a scoreline of 23 - 3.

Selby then cut loose in the final 10 mins,scoring a further three tries,all out wide,via their strong running threequarters,to give a somewhat false final score line of 40 - 3.However,they were clearly the superior team,with a young,fit,well balanced squad.Leos could take a number of positives from the game,with Barden displaying good leadership qualities to the end,Joe Newcombe making an encouraging debut and Thompson giving a man of the match performance in mid field.

Elsewhere,last weeks opponents Roundhegians,got off the mark,with a 34 a piece home draw against Ripon,whilst Castleford,Moortown and West Park all went down to their second defeats.Next week Leos entertain the surprise team of the season,in the form of Sheffield Medics,who started with a terrific win at Salem and followed it up with a draw at home to Hullensians.They are also bringing up their seconds for a Merit League fixture and with the final day of the ruined cricket season,it should be a busy day at Crag Lane.