Fixture

AFTER a week without a game because of the Autumn International matches and cup games it was back to business for Barry RFC 1st XV last Saturday when they entertained Old Illtydians RFC at the Reservoir Field for an East Central league 2 fixture.

After a shaky start to the season in which they lost their first three games, Barry have turned themselves around and won their last four games in the league so the expectations of the team and their supporters was naturally quite high and they were not to be disappointed.

In cold breezy conditions it was the visitors who started the better by attacking and putting early pressure on the home 15 from the kick-off and it did look for the first five minutes or so of the game that they might take an early lead, only to be denied by some resolute tackling by Barry and long relieving kicks by half back pair Kyle Barros and Einan Scott.

After a pointless 18 minutes or so of play however, it was Barry who struck the first blow.

A long probing kick by Kyle Barros put the Old Illtydians full back under pressure and he sliced his returning kick into touch about 10 yards or so from his own line.

From the resulting line out a take and drive by the Barry pack pushed the visitors pack over their own line enabling Luke O’Sullivan to touch down for the first try of the day which Kyle Barros duly converted.

With seven points on the board Barry started to attack and put a lot of pressure on the visitors.

However, in their eagerness to defend this surge by Barry some of the Old Iltydians became overzealous and five minutes later a penalty was awarded to Barry which unfortunately just shaved the upright in the swirling wind.

The Barry 15 were now in top gear and continued their attack to try and exploit the visitor’s weaknesses.

The pressure paid off in the 25th minute when after what can only be described as a bit of a melee behind the Old Illtydians post Luke O’Sullivan ended up with the ball in his hands and was able to ground the ball for his and Barry's second try.

Scrum half Kyle Barros was able to add the extra points to put Barry into a 14 point lead.

No one can be sure what the visitors captain had to say to his team after this second score but whatever it was it had a dramatic effect because they started to play with gusto and put the Barry defence on the back foot for the next 10 minute period of play and came close to scoring on a number of occasions.

However the Barry 15 were resolute in their defence and stopped them time and time again. This was the pattern of play up to the half-time whistle with Barry able to keep their 14 - 0 score.

The second half started from the kick-off with a dangerously high tackle on the Barry captain James Hadfield which was an obvious yellow card, if not more to all those who witnessed it, the one exception being the referee, who awarded a scrum to Old Illtydians for a knock on by James.

A very strange decision indeed but sadly not the only one made by the man in the middle who did not have the best game of his career.

Minutes later he showed a yellow card to Barry centre Tom Perry for knocking the ball out of one of the opponents arms when he had clearly ripped it out which is all fair.

If that was not bad enough five minutes later another yellow card was shown to hooker Alyn Evans for some misdemeanour, known only to the referee because he did not share it with Alyn.

With 15 playing 13 it was only going to be a matter of time before Old Illtydians took advantage of the situation and they did exactly that when their left wing went over in the corner for their first try of the game after 15 minutes of the second half. The conversion was unsuccessful.

The expectation at this stage of the game was that Barry would find it difficult to play attractive rugby with two men on the bench but this was not the case as they seemed to step up a gear and make numerous attacks on the visitor’s line only to be held up time and time again.

Their perseverance did pay off however after 25 minutes of the half when scrum half Kyle Barros scored Barry’s third try cutting through the defence from a five yard scrum.

His conversion attempt from wide out was unsuccessful in the swirling wind.

With the score at 19 - 5 in Barry’s favour the call was for a possible bonus point win but Old Illtydians had other ideas and seemed determined to deny them the extra point with very determined defensive play which kept Barry out time and time again.

After making substitutions at the 65 minute mark Barry hoped that fresh legs would help them get that elusive fourth try and bonus point which had been denied them in the previous match against Abercynon.

It proved to be a good move because with five minutes of the match to go, centre Tom Perry crashed over the line after a run in from 25 yards out to secure the elusive bonus point.

The conversion by Einan Scott was successful giving Barry a 26 - 5 score with a couple of minutes left on the clock.

Most of those watching would have understandably thought that was that but Old Illtydians had other ideas and pressed hard in the closing minutes to increase their score.

Their determination paid off and after some uncharacteristic sloppy defensive play by Barry they were able to score a second try which was converted giving a final score of 26 - 12 in Barry’s favour.

Considering the team had not had a game for two weeks this was a spirited display by Barry and they can be very pleased with their performance. The win put them in fourth place in the division with a game in hand over two of the teams above them.

Team: Dave Taylor, Alyn Evans, James Hollister, Rob Williams, Glyn Jones, Luke O Sullivan, James Hadfield, Callum Scott, Kyle Barros, Einan Scott, Wayne Jones, Brad White, Tom Perry, Danny Ryan, Tiernan Scott.

Replacements: Rhys O Sullivan, John Miles, Jamie Oaten, Ashley Adams and Tom Lee

Barry RFC's next East Central League 2 match will be on Saturday, December 3 versus Llanishen away at Usk Road, Llanishen kick-off 2.30pm.

Barry RFC Mega4 Lottery Numbers for Saturday, November 26 were 3, 7, 16 and 21.