Fixture

The Barrians entertained Llandaff on a foggy wintry afternoon at the Reservoir Field as they hoped to put last week’s disappointing result behind them.

With conditions difficult for both sides and the official it was no surprise that the early exchanges were littered with handling errors and a spate of scrums and penalties. 

After a scoreless first quarter it was the hosts which had the first score.  After the forwards had laid the platform, fly-half Ashley Adams set Wayne Jones up for the latter to defeat all defenders to score.  Adams failed to add the extras.

With the slope in their favour the visitors finally got into gear and with their fly-half dictating matters with his boot, they reduced the deficit by three with a successful penalty kick.

Buoyed by that success Llandaff launched further attacks on the Barry line and were eventually rewarded by an unconverted try out wide as the hosts ran out of defenders.

Undeterred, the Barrians halted their visitors’ momentum, and had the upper hand for the rest of the half.  Indeed, they regained the lead on the stroke of half time when Provis threw a long pass out to the left, and after smart exchanges between Jamie Leech and Wayne Jones the latter was on hand for his second score.  Jones himself was unable to add the extras but Barry went into the interval 10-8 ahead.

With the elements now in the hosts’ favour they took full advantage in the second half despite increasingly difficult conditions with the fog reducing visibility. 

Llandaff struggled with the pace and power of the Barrian backline, and following a fine break from Dave Provis, Rhys Knapman showed his pace to accelerate away from the defence to score under the posts.  Jones added the extras.

The Barrians continue to dominate and following a clever kick to the corner to gain territory, Ashton Allen stole the resulting line out the crash over for his side’s bonus-point score.  Jones missed the conversion from out wide but now the home side are in the driving seat for the game.

There was no let up for the visiting side and it was Allen again who powered over from close range after territorial domination from the hosts.  Jones was successful with his kick to give his side a clear advantage.

The scoring was not over as more smart exchanges in midfield saw make-shift centre Owain Poole crossing for his side’s sixth try.  Jones somehow missed from in front of the posts but the score was now 34-8.

Llandaff did not give up and dominated the closing exchanges as they looked for a score of their own, but despite some good build-up play was thwarted by resolute Barrian defending, led by replacement flanker James Hadfield.

The final score was in no way an unfair reflection of the Barrians’ dominance, especially in the second half.  The green-and-whites will hope to carry this momentum for the rest of their league campaign.

Team:  W Jones; Leech, Provis, Knapman, Corson; Adams, Dimond; Haigh, Ashill, Hall; G Jones, Allen; Rolfe, Poole, Goodfellow

Replacements:  Evans, Hadfield, Chow