Tickets for this are £5, and are available from Tony Wilkinson.

A decision will be made in the coming weeks as to the future of the club in the Rugby League Conference.

A 24 point haul from Scunthorpe stand off Karl Clayton was enough to help his team to a victory against divisional new boys Wetherby Bulldogs at John Leggott College on Saturday afternoon.

The haul, which included 2 tries and 8 conversions, was helped by braces of tries from Will Scupham, Danny Cribbis and Dave Garbutt, as well as efforts from Gaz Phillips, Craig Catchpole and Jake Goodison, saw the hosts run home as winners by 60 points to 30, with the visitors finishing the game with 12 men on the pitch following a late sending off.

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It was a sign of things to come, when after just 19 seconds, Wetherby knocked on attempting to spread the ball wide, however, Scunthorpe couldn’t take advantage of this.

In the 6th minute however, Scunthorpe did mark their first score of the day, with Gaz Phillips finding his way through the visiting defence to touch down out wide, following a well worked cross field passing move, with Will Scupham and Gareth Mist being at the cutting edge of the move, Claytons conversion attempt was unsuccessful.

Clayton was next on the scoresheet, as after halfback partner Jason Eagles had found a gap in the defence to break clear from the halfway line before drawing the full back for Clayton to run home from 20m out for a try which he successfully converted.

Almost straight from the kick off, the Barbarians were back on the scoresheet, as they forced their way deep into the Wetherby half, before Danny Cribbis found himself on the end of a Karl Clayton pass to burst through the defensive line from about 15m to score, breaking 3 tackles on the way to the line. Clayton tagged on the extras, to take the hosts 16 points clear.

It wasn’t all plain sailing for the hosts, as it was the visitors who notched the next three scores, with defensive lapses being to blame for the first two tries, before a well worked overlap on the right hand side brought the visitors level.

With 5 minutes left in the first half, it was plain to see that the next scorer would probably wrestle the mental battle, and the next score went to the hosts.

After a couple of well worked sets of tackles, and great work from substitute centre Kepa Pakaa, the Barbarians found themselves deep in Wetherby territory on the last tackle. A great high kick from Jason Eagles bounced awkwardly for the visiting defence, and landed in the hands of the onrushing Clayton, who was able to ground the ball for his second try of the game. He successfully landed the kick, to take the score to 22-16 at half time.

If the hosts were sluggish at times in the first half, then the way in which they started the second half can only be described as breathtaking, as the hosts broke from deep in their own half, sending Rick Lee clear from the covering defence, and as he came under pressure from the full back and the covering defence, he launched a pass over his left shoulder for loose forward Dave Garbutt to collect the pass and outpace the defence over the last 10 metres to score. Clayton once again added the extras.

Once again, the Barbarians followed quickly with another try, this time, Kepa Pakaa broke from deep, carrying several defenders on him, once the tackle was completed, a quick play the ball allowed Mark Sherwood to set Clayton clear, and his dummy to John Williams allowed second rower Cribbis, finding space a plenty out wide, to break through the tiniest of gaps to run the remaining 25 metres or so to the tryline for his second try of the game, another conversion was added by Clayton, who up to this point had only missed the one conversion from 6.

The visitors got on the scoresheet again almost immediately from the kick off, as a well worked kick off bounced over Rick Lee, and into the hands of an onrushing Wetherby player, who took the tackle. From that tackle, Wetherby found a gap on the Scunthorpe left and made the most of it, scoring a converted try.

Less than a quarter of an hour into the second half saw the hosts score their 7th try of the day, as Dave Garbutt burrowed his way over the tryline from close range for his second try of the game. Clayton missed the conversion attempt.

90 seconds later, the hosts were once again on the scoresheet, albeit in somewhat controversial circumstances, as teenage winger Jake Goodison was sent clear on the left hand side, and although his left foot appeared to touch the whitewash on the touchline, he continued past the now static defence to score just to the left hand side of the posts for his third try in as many games. The conversion was once more tagged on by the almost metronomic Clayton.

With just over 17 minutes remaining in the game, there was a first try for the club for Craig Catchpole, who had a good game in the second row, he found a space on the Wetherby right, which had been profitable all game for the hosts, and trotted home from about 10m out to score in the corner.

Almost straight from the kick off, the hosts found themselves down to 12 men, as after a break from their own half, Wetherby found themselves within feet of the Scunthorpe tryline, only for Gavin Draper to prevent the attacker from regaining his feet, and was sent to the sin bin for this infraction.

The numerical advantage was used to the advantage of the visitors almost straight away, as they found space on the right hand side, caused by Drapers absence, to score another try, their 5th of the day.

The thought that the hosts would be rattled by the visitors numerical advantage was at the front of a few of the spectators minds, but to the players on the pitch, it was just another challenge, which they stepped up to with aplomb, this time, Will Scupham found a space on the tryline to dive over from a matter of inches out to score another converted try.

In the aftermath of the try, a Wetherby player was sent to the sin bin for showing dissent at the referees decision to award the try, instead believing that the official had accidentally obstructed the defence. Upon receiving the card, the player lost all reasonable thought and was sent off for using foul and abusive language toward the official.

Scupham scored his second try of the game 5 minutes later, finding himself in the right place to secure the ball after Karl Claytons break to touch down in the corner, Clayton securing his most difficult conversion of the day from the touchline to finish the hosts scoring.

Wetherby had the last laugh however, as with the last possession of the game, they broke from distance, and outpaced the Scunthorpe defence to score under the posts.

Final Score – Scunthorpe 60 – 30 Wetherby.

Man Of The Match – Karl Clayton.
Gamebreaker – Dave Garbutts try a matter of seconds into the second knocked the stuffing out of any potential Wetherby comeback.

Further penalties resulted in a quick tap and yet another 6 pointer scored.

Scunthorpe started to get into the game which resulted in a good drive and subsequent kick to the corner on the last tackle by Karl Clayton being cheased up and finished in excellent fashion by young Jake Goodison.

Unfortunately the kick was at a difficult angle and the chance for extras was missed.

Further pressure before half time saw us score again through a familiar drive from in form Will Scupham. The drive saw him scoot in near the posts making the conversion easy for Ian Lee. Score 10-16 at half time.

Unfortunately the second half started poorly with 3 tries being scored by Parkside via a combination of missed tackles and and slick handling skills.

Scunthorpe finally got organised and started playing exspansive Rugby League. Good handling worked the Barbarians into good field position allowing Jason Eagles to kick to the corner for Ashley Dibden, another impressive newcomer for this season, to chase onto and beat the defender to the ball in the corner. Karl Clayton converted the difficult kick.

Scunthorpe seemed to now show belief and and again achieved good field position. Will Scupham with a similar try to his first then darted over for his second try. The conversion was unfortunately missed.

Next it was the turn of Dave Garbutt to score. Playing his first game of the season for the Barbarians he showed what he could for the rest of the season by smashing through several defenders to score on the left hand side.

Karl Clayton again scored the extras.

Next came a couple of strang decisions which resulted in a shell shocked Barbarians team going a further 6 points behind. Firstly a kick was fielded close to there line. As Lewis Jones was tackled close to the line he was then adjudjed to hold a far larger player ontop of himself slowing down his own play of the ball. The decision was given as a penalty to Parkside only 1m from the home sides line. Next as the referee was still explaining the penalty to the Barbarians players he allowed the attacking player to take a quick tap and dive into the line by the officials feet.

This served to frustrate the Barbarians who then upped their game further in an effort to further close the gap.
Good defensive work resulted in Lewis Jones collecting the ball in his own half and jinking through into the opposition half. Excellent support play by Danny Cribbis saw him crash over under the posts for Scunthorpes final converted score of the game.

Unfortunately finishing 4 points short of the total. Positives were taken from the game and with players still to come into the side there is still alot more to come from the Barbarians.

This week we go from playing lasts seasons Champions to entertaining this years bottom placed team Wetherby. This is a strong league and all but one team have a win this year so a strong display will be needed to make sure Scunthorpe beat the North Yorkshire side.

Kick off is at the usual time of 2.30 and the game will be played at the Barbarians new home pitch located at John Leggott College.