Fixture

The Barrians advanced to the semi-finals of the Ron Locock Cup courtesy of a hard fought victory over Taffs Well in difficult conditions.

The home side had the elements and the slope against them in the first half, and it was expected for them to try to weather the Taffs Well onslaught.  True to form, the visitors forced numerous penalties near the Barrian line and eventually converted an opportunity to take a three point lead at the second time of asking.

The hosts were not helped by some indiscipline which saw them down to fourteen for ten minutes, but as soon as they were back to the full complement began to take the game to their opposition.

The strong gale, combined with some poor handling in difficult conditions meant that the half-back combination of Evan Wall and Tiernan Scott struggled to get their powerful midfield going.  Instead, it was down to the forwards who excelled in such conditions, with some strong carries from Richard Williams, Jon Morris, and the captain Tom Haigh.

Towards the end of the half it was Taffs Well who had their backs to the wall and when they suffered a double blow of losing a player to the bin and their outside half to injury, the Barrians struck a decisive blow just before the interval.

It was a simple move which undid the visitors in the end, as the Barrians worked off the base of the scrum with the ball going through the hands of veteran Jason Evans, Scott, and then Ethan Dicks who crashed over.  Scott’s conversion barely left the ground to leave the home side 5-3 to the good at half time.

With the elements to their favour it was expected that the hosts would have the upper hand in the second half and so it proved.  Heavy pressure on the Taffs Well line saw them concede more penalties and lose another player to the sin bin.  The Barrians took full advantage, utilising a set move off the base of the scrum to see Scott dive through in the corner for his side’s second score.  With the conversion missed the Barrians were 10-3 up but the game was still in the balance.

As it was it was the visitors who seemed to gain a second wind as the half wore on and when it was the Barrians’ turn to go down to fourteen men with Curtis Miller receiving the referee’s wrath, Taffs Well converted pressure into points by scoring an unconverted try.

Rattled, the Barrians rolled up their sleeves as they chose to assault the visiting line instead of defending their own.  It was justified when Scott put a clever grubber behind the defence and Quentin Corson dived across for an excellent finish in the corner.  Dicks was unable to add the extras.

Taffs Well tried to launch one last attack but this time they were beaten by the elements and the clock as the Barrians saw out the game to advance into the semi-finals.

This was a hard-fought victory over plucky opposition in difficult conditions.  The players and management should all be congratulated in turning a team barely able to field a side last term to semi-finalists this season.

There is no game next weekend but Barry return to action on Saturday 28^th December with Dinas Powis their visitors.

Team:  Forrester; Corson, Dicks, Beavis, Webb; T Scott, Wall; Haigh ©, Morris, Dutton; Oaten, Williams; Ashill, Goodfellow, Evans

Replacements:  Harris (for Oaten), Deyes (for Ashill), Miller (for Haigh), L Scott (for Morris)