Heath sunk by late Selby scores

Heath suffered a fourth successive defeat in a disappointing 31-21 defeat away to lowly Selby on Saturday.
Selby v Heath
Ian DownsboroughSelby v Heath
Ian Downsborough
Selby v Heath Ian Downsborough

Their relegation-threatened hosts were desperate for points and picked up five after scoring two converted tries in the last 10 minutes.

The visitors were without Josh White, Matt Beasty and Mark Sale, all injured in the bruising battle with Bradford and Bingley the previous week, but Ezra Hinchliffe and Sam Pollard returned and Ryan Hunter and Peter Birkett were recalled.

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Winger Callum Harriett-Brown was bundled into touch a metre short of the try line on three metres, following Pollard’s clever kick, but the position wasn’t lost.

A clever pass from captain Dom Walsh set up Alex McFadden for the opening try, converted by Ezra Hinchliffe, and Heath had the perfect start.

Selby hit back straight back with an unconverted try and continued to press, adding a second on 20 minutes to lead 12-7.

Selby knocked on from the restart. Ian Downsborough controlled the scrum but Walsh’s pass to Howard Hanks was ruled forwards and a certain try went begging.

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Superb work from Cameron Ramsden set up Hinchliffe, who released Harriet-Brown to go over in the corner after 23 minutes. Hinchliffe added a brilliant touch line conversion to give Heath a 14-12 lead.

Play was fairly even in the run up to half time.

Selby came out with all guns blazing and scored an easy try in the corner on 43 minutes.

Coach Dave Harrison shuffled the visitors, who regained the lead when an attempted clearance was charged down by Matt Baxendale and he touched down to make it 17-21.

Heath were looking for a bonus point try and were confidently throwing the ball about but Baxendale was injured and Heath’s momentum disappeared.

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Selby pounced with a converted fourth try to lead 24-21 and then won the race to a kick through to stretch their advantage to 10 points.

The hosts had a player sin-binned for the last five minutes but Heath could not get over the line.