Fixture

Please find below our first Match report from Mr Ken Watkins our new signing formally of Sudbury RFC in Suffolk where he is an Honorary Lifetime member. Ken has worked as a journalist and editor of newspapers all his working life, starting for the Western Mail and Echo many years ago, he fell in love and married a Barry girl, they have recently returned to Barry and Ken kindly offered his services, we would like to extend a warm welcome from everyone from the club to Ken and all his family

Barry 28 Dinas Powys 34

As the clock ticked down on Saturday it appeared Barry would end the Plate match empty handed, despite a spirited second half fightback. But two late tries saw two well deserved points clinched.

The team weathered a difficult first half, after opting to play against a strong wind, but some determined defence restricted the visitors to just two tries.

“With the elements against us it was tough,” said head coach Liam Scott. “To a man we dug in deep, and 10-0 at half-time we were more than happy at that point. For the second half we told the guys to stick to the game plan, and opportunities would arise.”

Which they duly did, producing four excellent tries to earn a bonus point, as Barry enjoyed more possession and territory after the break. But Dinas Powys proved a constant threat, twice taking advantage of missed tackles to keep the pressure on their hosts.

Scott felt Barry had passed up on a couple of good chances in the second half, “one where the pass didn’t go to hand, and another where we just made the wrong decision. We’ll probably kick ourselves that with a bit more accuracy, a bit more ball, we could have won the game.”

Overall he felt there were more positives than negatives. “Set pieces we’ve got to work on, but there’s a lot to take out of it, we’ve got a lot more to give, a few more injuries to come back to bolster the side. There were three or four youngsters out there playing their first competitive senior game, and they stood up.”

Dinas Powys took a third minute lead, Morgan Louch the extra man going over in the corner. Tom Jenkins added a second in the 38th minute as the visiting pack drove over the line. Louch was in again after 52 minutes, taking advantage of a missed tackle.

Three minutes later Dan Ryan went over for Barry to end a passing move which opened the visiting defence. Kyle Barros converted.

But Dinas Powys increased the pressure with two tries in two minutes, Jenkins finishing off a driving scrum, Ben White converting. Adam Williams then raced clear, shrugging off some despairing tackles, White converting.

Barry closed the gap once more, Joel Beavis cutting through the defence, Barros adding the extras. Williams then outpaced the defence again to put Dinas Powys 20 points ahead as the clock ticked down. Game over? Not quite.

A driving maul was finished off by Ashton Allen, Barros converting. Barros rounded things off by ending a swift passing move under the posts, converting his own bonus point try and earning a losing bonus point.

As Scott reflected afterwards: “I think we were in the ascendancy. If the game had been five minutes longer….”