Selby 38 Keighley 15

An early penalty for Selby’s second choice outside half Alex Webster opened the scoring. Keighley responded, driving play into the Selby twenty two metre area. Unfortunately the initiative was lost when they were robbed of the ball at the breakdown, some quick thinking and slick handling gave Selby full back Ben Lunt an opportunity to run around a slack Keighley defence to score.

A few minutes later an ‘up and under’ from Keighley’s outside half Danny McGee was allowed to bounce in the Selby half, centre Scott Dyson chasing in support gathered the ball to score between the posts, converted by McGee. A few minutes later sustained Selby pressure caused Keighley to stray offside, and a further three points for Webster. At this stage of the game Keighley had enough possession from all phases of play to challenge the Selby lead, however, a lot of good possession was wasted through ill conceived kicking. One such stray kick gave Selby the opportunity to break down the left hand side of the field, once again quick hands led to a score for winger Alex Arthur, converted by Webster.

Keighley pulled back some of the lead with a McGee penalty. Just before the half time whistle Selby gave Keighley another lesson in keeping the ball alive, off loading before contact they breached the Keighley defence with ease and outside half Webster broke away to score a fine try that he also converted.

In the second half Keighley attempted to raise their game but the normal dynamic forward play was missing. Even though they managed some fine drives into Selby territory their efforts were negated through poor technique which slowed the release of the ball, and allowed the defence to dominate. A period of hard driving play eventually paid off with a well taken try for winger Lucas Uren. With time running out Keighley were guilty of straying offside, resulting in a gifted three points for Webster.

In the final minutes Selby killed the game off with a well worked try for winger Ollie Sanders, Webster capped an excellent individual performance with the conversion. This weekend Keighley are at home to Scarborough.