Match Reports – 26 & 27 October 24

FIRST TEAM

SCUNTHORPE 39 – SANDAL 31

Scunthorpe faced their toughest test with the visit of second place Sandal pushing the Greens all the way. The West Yorkshire outfit came with a reputation of having a very useful back line and this proved to be true when they scored the first try of the game.

Scunthorpe had the first chance to score when after the third penalty Ethan Taylor put the ball right on the five-metre line. The ball was won but Sandal countered the rolling maul, Scunthorpe kept possession, eventually the ball went wide but the chance went begging. Sandal then began to show why they are second with some good all-round play. A high tackle allowed them to work their way into the home side 22. The catch and drive went well, an excellent turn over from Matt Mason prevented a certain score. After 13 minutes they came back this time the normally solid defence could not keep them out. It was Scunthorpe that got the wrong side of the referee, giving away far too many penalties. Sandal kept their patience, and the talented winger Jack Handley stepped inside to score, Scott Macgregor missed the extra two.

Seven minutes later Laurence Pearce thought he had scored a great bulldozing try but the match official called a double movement and gave Sandal the penalty. After 23 minutes Scunthorpe managed remove the shackles and start to play like they have been doing all season. Backs and forwards drove forward keeping the ball alive. A quick tap penalty from Joey Mowbray made ground, the ball was spun wide and Matty Mason drew two defenders to slip the ball to Lewis Talbot. With a lot to do the young starlet weaved his way passed a desperate defender to score in the corner. 5-5.

Then quite an usual incident, never seen before, saw the conversion charged down. The referee deemed that Ethan Taylor had started his run up when he was simply wiggling as his style. The defender ran up and kicked the ball away in amazement to all but Sandal. It was Sandal who were now playing the expansive rugby this time with replacement McNab crossing over in the corner, 5-10.

The visiting kicker Macgregor then went and hit the cross bar with a penalty and Scunthorpe counter attacked with gusto deep into Sandal territory, Lewis Talbot found some space, chipped the defender but the ball bounced into touch. The match was now developing into a titanic struggle between two very good teams. Scunthorpe moved towards half time looking second best but for five minutes of magic with Josh Lugsden scoring twice. The first was real class. The opposition fluffed their own line out deep in their 22, Scunthorpe pounced the ball was moved swiftly through the backs and Lugsden found some space to dive over in the corner. This time Ethan Taylor made no mistake with his technique, but the ball hit the post and went wide.

The second Lugsden try was just as good as Scunthorpe were camped in the Sandal 22, Cam Christie leading the line as he drove on several times. The ball came to Lugsden tight on the blind side, he slipped it to Lewis Talbot who showed real class. The defender lined up Talbot for a try saving tackle, but he saw this coming and made a lovely inside pass to the supporting winger Lugsden who strolled over. Taylor converted from touch and Scunthorpe went into half time 17-10 to the good.

Sandal drew level two minutes into the half with another well worked backs try from winger Adams. The home side’s defenders could not lay a hand on the speedster as he weaved his way through to score the corner. Macgregor converted to level at 17-17.

The next twenty minutes of the game saw Scunthorpe step up and play some of their best league rugby, managing the game perfectly with three match winning tries. The first was herculean in style from Laurence Pearce. Sandal cleared their lines with a high kick. Joey Mowbray used a textbook foot trap to kill the ball and on his right-hand side coming like a train Laurence Pearce was given the perfect pass. The talismanic centre raced sixty metres to score a great individual try, Taylor converted.

Ten minutes later Lewis Talbot scored his second. Sandal gave away a penalty and from the resulting line out Marcus Payne, who plays like the Duracell advert, gamboled down the line, the ball was retained, moved wide quickly and it was the two wingers working in tandem with each other as ‘Luggy’ put his teammate in for a try. Taylor converted and at 31-17 things were looking rosy.

Will Harrison was moved to scrum half and Elliot Saltmarsh came onto open side. The Greens had two further chances to score but knock-ons saw them go astray. The third and vital try came from a searching kick from Taylor aimed at the speedy green wingers but was fielded by Sandal. However, in the ruck, they got the wrong side of the referee. Taylor put the ball to the corner and the reliable Scunthorpe line out executed the catch and drive with Marcus Payne deservedly collecting the touchdown. 36-17.

Sandal weathered this storm and came back again through winger Adams with a converted try. Scunthorpe were still comfortable but could not afford to take their foot off the gas. Ethan Taylor kicked a penalty to make the score differential three tries at least with ten minutes to go. Adams scored his hat-trick try for Sandal in the last minute and the score finished 39-31.

This was a comfortable but hard-fought victory even though Sandal scored five tries the Greens managed the game superbly and maintained their 100% record. It also made the gap at the top of the table nine points as the players look forward to a rest day next weekend with no league rugby on offer.

Player of the Match – Lewis Talbot

Match report written by Steve Williams, Photos below credited to Paul McDonald

Sandals Match Report can be found here – Match Report: Scunthorpe 39 – 31 Sandal : 1st XV

WOMEN’S TEAM

SCUNTHORPE 51 – MACCLESFIELD 38

Cup Game Match Report

Forward of the Match – Victoria

Back of the match – Ella

Oppositions player – Ewa

Scunthorpe Women’s team travelled to Macclesfield to play their second round fixture of the Papa Johns Junior Cup . The game started at a frantic pace with both teams trying to get the upper hand . Scunthorpe were determined to bounce back after the previous league fixture. It was Scunthorpe that scored first very early on to calm the nerves. We had to settle down very quickly if we wanted to play our brand of rugby . The game was hectic and really disorganised in places which made the game very much a like a see saw scenario going score for score for much of the game . Some excellent set piece play with the Scunthorpe forwards was a huge catalyst for the backs to play off . The final score was 51-38 to Scunthorpe Women

They will progress to the third round where Burton await them on the 1st December

Ewa

Ella

Dawn

Victoria

Jodie

Louise B – 3 conversions

Photos taken from Instagram Stories, Report taken from the Scunthorpe Women’s Rugby Union Facebook Page

SECOND TEAM

SANDAL 33 – SCUNTHORPE 19

October 26th saw the stags travel away for the second time this season to Sandal. The sun came out for kick off and the game was underway.

In typical stags fashion the first whistle didn’t mean play time allowing Sandal to run in 3 early tries and converting them all with in 25 minutes. The stags finally woke up with a good hold of attacking pressure in Sandals 22, a wide pass with the opposition camped on their try line saw winger Josh Rudkin slide over the line in the corner, conversion missed. 21-5.

The stags continued with the pressure and scored another through Alf Taylor. 21-12.

Sandal reacted soon after with an intercept under pressure in their own 22, taking the hosts 28-12 up against the run of play.

The stags didn’t lie down though and put pressure on the sandal line out with an overthrow landing in the stags scrum half hands which led to a break and link up between Rory Rendall Tyrell and Mo Ratnage saw the latter cross the line for his first stags try. Conversion good 28-19.

With a solid 20 minutes of defending by the stags in their own half sandal broke through final minutes of the game to score once more, conversion missed. 33-19 Final score

Player of the Match – Alf Taylor

Match Report written by – Billy Hardy

DEVELOPMENT TEAM

BARTON 15 – SCUNTHORPE 21

Match Report pending

3rd TEAM

BEVERLEY 38 – SCUNTHORPE 7

We travelled to Beverley and unfortunately the score didn’t reflect the real game.

This was a game where we well and truly worked together as a team and every single man on that pitch gave everything they had until the bitter end! We lost a player early on that put us down to 14 and then lost 2 key players to injury with losts of time remaining.

MOM was a difficult choice but a well deserved Phil Jepson took the vote with a special mention to a Mr Rob White who turned up at Heslam with a Newcastle Brown bottle and a pair of boots thinking he was going to be a cheerleader for the day again, yet played the majority of the game with an excellent performance!

Another mention to Carl Duffin who was completely broken yet carried on due to us having no other subs and eventually scored our one and only try to keep us from giving the opposition a clean sheet – We had to force him off the pitch with 5 minutes remaining having borrowed a player from Beverley.

Every player battled yesterday and we left that pitch proud of what we achieved even though it was a loss.

Man of the Match – Phil Jepson

Match Report written by Martin O’Hara