Fixture

By Colin Ham

LACKLUSTRE BARRY SECOND BEST AT YNYSYBWL

With no game last week because of the Wales/Barbarians match in Cardiff, it was back to business for the Barry 1^st XV last Saturday when they travelled to Ynysybwl RFC for an East Central Division 1 league match.

In spite of the heavy rain in recent weeks the playing surface was in very good condition and ideal for open running rugby. With both teams having won and lost the same number of matches in the season to date a very close encounter was anticipated by the travelling supporters. Sadly, this was not to be the case with lacklustre Barry being well beaten by the home side and losing by 35 points to nil.

It all started to go wrong for Barry from the start. Receiving the ball from the kick off, Ynysybwl attacked immediately and their backs set up a move which could not be contained by the Barry defence due to a number of missed tackles. This allowed the home side to open the scoring with a well worked converted try in the corner and with only 2 minutes of play on the clock Barry were       7 – 0 down.

This was not the start that Barry had hoped for, but things were about to get worse, much worse in fact. From the restart, Ynysybwl with ball in hand, immediately set up another attack moving the ball swiftly between their forwards and backs to score another try under the posts. With the conversion again successful, Barry were 15 – 0 down after only 5 minutes of play. Sadly, during this passage of play Barry’s hooker Dave Evans sustained a knee injury and had to leave the field to be replaced by Lucas Davies.

Barry attempted to get their act together and began to set up a series of attacking moves themselves. Sadly, through lack of concentration and possibly a bit of shell shock from the home sides early tries, the ball was mishandled during one of their moves enabling the home sides defence to hack the ball down field towards the Barry line. During this passage of play there was an opportunity to put the ball out of play by the Barry defence but an air shot or to be precise an air kick by one of the covering defenders allowed the home side to pounce on the ball for their third try. With the conversion again successful, Barry were 21 points down after 14 minutes of play and facing a mountain to climb.

For the next 20 minutes or so Barry seemed to stem the one - way flow and held their own. A long releasing kick by the Ynysybwl full back was collected by second row Sion Vidal who rang a full 40 yards or so before being stopped in his tracks. The ball was recirculated to the Barry backs who came close to scoring only to be stopped by a resolute home defence.

One misdemeanour of the home side was the frequency of their backs to impede Barry’s defence by crossing when they were attacking, and this was only picked up once or twice by the referee to Barry’s disadvantage. Barry’s first real chance of putting points on the board came close to half time when after one of these transgressions, Kyle Barros put in a long relieving kick of 40 or more yards from the penalty awarded to find touch 10 yards from the Ynysybwl line. From the throw in a take and drive was set up which was stopped a couple of feet short of the line. Half time score Ynysybwl 21 Barry 0.

There must have been some stern words spoken to the Barry side during the break because they started the second half with fervour and came close to scoring a number of times with some penetrating runs by Ashley Adams, Tom Perry and prop Alyn Evans. However, it was not to be and however hard they tried they were always stopped by a resolute Ynysybwl defence as time fizzled away. When it looked as though 21 – 0 might be the final score, the referee blew his whistle for a knock on and then awarded a penalty try to Ynysybwl to the dismay of both sets of supporters. This was the final straw for Barry and it came as no surprise when the home side added a further 7 points right on full time. Final score Ynysybwl 35 Barry 0.

This was a poor and disappointing performance by Barry who have shown in previous matches that they are capable of much better.

Team: Alyn Evans, Dave Evans, Sam Bowditch, Rob Williams, Sion Vidal, Garth Peake, John Miles, Marc Devine, Dom Busuttil, Einan Scott, Ross Merrills, Tom Perry, Kyle Barros, Danny Ryan and Kyle Johns

Subs: Lucas Davies, Jamie Oaten, Nathan Harris, Joel Beavis and Ashley Adams.

Next Match: East Central League 1 on Saturday December 14^th. versus Rhiwbina away K.O 2.30pm.

Barry RFC Mega4 Lottery Numbers for Saturday 7^th December 2019:  3, 9, 17 and 23. We have one overall winner this week with one ticket matching all four numbers and winning £5800. No tickets matched 3 numbers.