Injuries and trips to Twickenham to watch England beat South Africa caused both York and Selby to field much-changed sides when they met at Clifton Park on Saturday.

And, although the conditions were the best they had been for a long time, the net result was a fast, error strewn game in which the superb kicking of Selby's Carl Paterson eventually conquered the driving and rucking of York and took Selby to a 16-10 victory.

York settled well and after six minutes, as a result of some organised drives, Dirk Mulder punished a Selby offside some 30 metres out.

Play rev-erted to midfield and Pater-son missed with a long-range effort before York enjoyed a tremendous phase of inter-passing which, after two backhand passes by newcomer Scott Boothroyd, the ball was transferred to prop Nathan Harding, who crashed over near the posts for a superb try, converted by Mulder.

Selby responded well and on the back of some good tactical kicking, forced York to defend in the wet, sticky corner of the pitch. A failed touch clearance and further pressure saw York penalised, and Paterson reduced the deficit.

York's Boothroyd now left the field as a precaution, the result of a heavy tackle in midfield. Mell, the new recruit from Doncaster, took over in the centre and Ed Bennison moved to full-back. Despite this, York finished the half strongly and Mulder just failed with another goal attempt on half-time.

Strangely the referee's timing of this half extended to 52 minutes, with few in the crowd able to recall the 12 minutes of injuries.

After York gave away possession with poor kicking, lock forward Dempsey was penalised for going over the top and when an expletive, not directed at the referee, was misunderstood, he was sinbinned.

York paid the price doubly as Paterson converted from the touchline.

In the subsequent exchanges, York's seven-man pack held up well and play stayed mainly in midfield, but with the crowd indicating the ten-minute sin-bin penalty was over, the referee allowed play to continue for a further couple of minutes.

The timekeeping proved crucial, as during this time, Mike Parsonage, a former York player, completed Selby's most enterprising movement with a good try in the corner.

Dempsey's punishment had lasted 12 minutes by the time he returned and the game had changed significantly. York were now playing catch-up.

Back to full strength, York's pack began to dominate once more and with Mell and Davies becoming more of a handful in the centre it seemed only a matter of time before York regained the lead.

Indeed Selby were reduced to a series of massive clearance kicks. The pressure continued to build but with time running out York, having won an important lineout close to the Selby line, contrived to lose possession, when to drive over and score seemed easier.

Thus relieved, Selby advanced up the pitch and finished strongly, Paterson scoring a fine try in the corner to close the match at 16-10.

From the hosts' point of view there were several pluses, most notably the return of Durham at scrum-half and the introductions of Mell, Boothroyd and West.