A large crowd gathered at Selby’s Sandyhill Lane to witness the restart of league rugby. It felt like a real occasion as the tension grew as kick off neared. We at Pontefract must thank Selby who paid tribute to our recently departed president Neil Bowmer with a minutes silence and a written tribute in the programme.

The Ponte team bore a very similar resemblance to the pre covid team the exceptions been winger Tom Chester, hooker Tim Pickersgill and scrum half Linden Metcalfe who all made their league debuts and each had solid games.

Ponte were a try down before they had touched the ball as Selby started very impressively with fast hands and rucking leading to a try out wide which they failed to convert.

From then on Ponte got a foothold in the game and a strong drive from Josh Hough lead to a five metre scrum which the pack carried on their pre covid dominance with a pushover try for number eight Josh Beddis.

It is credit to Selby, Ponte could not work their way into a similar position for the rest of the game, blunting what is, at the moment, their best attacking weapon.

The rest of the half was a scrappy affair with penalties traded for an eight all scoreline which most people thought a good reflection on the half.

The second half was a struggle for Ponte and in truth never looked like adding to their tally. Having said that, Selby, although undoubtedly the better team on the day, did not

create much either but took advantage of a charged down kick and a fumble in the backs to register tries, the latter a near length of the field effort which undoubtedly put a flattering look to the scoreline.

There were many positives for Pontefract, new pack leader Brodie Matthews took to the role with ease whilst Beddis and Callum Rogers in particular stood up well to an excellent opposition back row. The backs had a difficult afternoon but in general kept the opposites quiet including their highly rated new signing from the higher leagues in the centre.

In all, a very wholehearted performance which should give encouragement to the Ponte faithful going forwards.