Barnsley came out of the blocks like an iguana in a snake pit against local rivals Wath and made short work of taking a commanding lead that they would never relinquish. Barnsley served an early warning to their rivals as Terrington and then Fisher made yards against a stretched defence but good cover put them in touch.

The scrums were evenly matched and aside from the odd wobble the line outs both operated effectively and each side had plenty of set piece ball. Barnsley were simply much more dangerous with ball in hand with Bunny and Will Smith both testing the defence from the first 5 minutes and it was no surprise 4 of the 5 tries Barnsley scored came from them.

The Fresh Prince had wrapped his hatrick up after 16 minutes producing two smart finishes after great build up play from the whole Barnsley team had stretched the defence. His third came as Wath were mounting a decent attack. As their whole back line flooded the open side Barnsley emerged with the ball from a ruck and Will duly raced away to score his third try. The returning Greg Colbridge had booited two of the conversions over and Barnsley had 19 on the board.

The only gripes the spectators could have came from some seriously mindless penalties that kept Wath just about in touch. Their 10 kicked superbly and three times ponderous attacking that Barnsley were having no issue defending resulted in a penalty shot that was taken.

Tasker was having a storming day against his old club and Reed kept up his recent good form to ensure Barnsley stayed on the front foot. A break from Reed saw Barnsley mount another challenge and both Copley and Tyler Smith made yards as Barnsley entered the Wath 22. A loose ball threatened to end the attack but as Beck dove on it the Wath 8 decided to tackle the approaching Appleyard anyway (he must have missed him) and Colbridge slotted the penalty. 22-9 at half time.

Wath did narrow the gap further with another penalty but Barnsley were boosted by the return of Joe South and went largely untroubled in the opening of the half without seriously threatening themselves. Will Smith saw yellow after being offside for the 84th time in the game which did contribute to Barnsley playing safe.

Appleyard deserved great credit for his willingness to spread the play in the first half, both his boot and that of Colbridge had also kicked Barnsley to huge gains and both kept this up in the second period. Joe Green had another good day, he's delivered repeat astute displays of late and his increased role is very much deserved.

Elliott Copley continued his impressive breakthrough season with some great carries and after he stretched Wath down the left the ball came back across field. Fisher, giving his best display in a Barnsley shirt, blasted through on a great line and was unlucky to be brought down short but Colbridge managed to gather the ball and force his way over. He converted his own score.

Lawton was unlucky not to score after he tried a clever kick over that he almost gathered which would have capped another solid display from the young 9. Eaden and Cairns entered the fray and both made a fine impact. Cairns carried very well after a few weeks out and Eaden launched an all action cameo racking up tackles and dislodging the ball from a Wath ruck as they threatened. He was harshly yellow carded, judged not 10 from a penalty which cut his game short. Wath managed to score with a rolling maul from the resulting line out.

Colbridge had the last word as he gathered a hopeful kick from Wath. He chipped the defensive line and gathered the ball before sprinting away. He unselfishly drew the last man and passed to Bunny who gleefully ran in to score under the sticks. Appleyard added the conversion as Colbridge got treatment for a sore calf. Poor Greggy.

Will Smith took man of the match but it was a top team display. Wath had an afternoon to forget but no doubt can produce much better and will be a different prospect in the return fixture.

Barnsley are crying out for two good performances in a row and an away trip to Ripon this weekend would be a great place to record another.