Fixture

Barry 2^nd XV began their season hosting Clwb Rygbi in a rain-soaked Reservoir Field.

Coach Rhidian Scott and manager Ken Chow were forced to delve deep into the squad to find 19 fit players with the growing injury list.  Dan Gill and Frank Peake were handed their senior debuts, with Dylan Robertson, Mike Hamonda and Matt Williams all returning from long term injury.

The hastily assembled Barry side were slow to adapt to the difficult conditions and it was no surprise that the visiting side took the initiative, forcing Barry onto the back foot right from the off.

With the line-out frequently harshly penalised by the referee, who did not do either side any favours throughout the game, Barry struggled to maintain any possession despite having the elements behind them in the first interval.

Instead it was Clwb who opened the scoring out wide with the conversion missed to go into the break 5-0 ahead.

With it all to do in the second half, Barry tried to play a tighter game and there were good carries from Jake Goodfellow, Dave Evans and Curtis Miller.  However, there was a lack of cohesion in the back-line and the hosts were unable to score the points that their endeavour deserved.

The home scrum was also creaking and that handed Clwb further initiative and they duly scored a converted try just before the hour mark to put them two scores clear.

With Robertson limping off after a recurrence of his knee injury, Barry’s back-line was forced to reshuffle with the inexperienced Jamie Leech now at scrum-half.  That did not inspire an unlikely fight back as Clwb increased their lead with another converted try.

Barry defended stubbornly to the last, led by the back row of Thomas, Goodfellow and Miller, and to their credit stopped their visitors from gaining the bonus point try.

Whilst this was a disappointing result in the opening weekend of the season, the young Barry side would have learnt a lot from this experience and hope to improve on their performance next weekend.

Barry travel next to St Peters after their mid-week cup tie was called off as Cathays have withdrawn from the Mallet Cup.

Team:  Gill; Hamonda, F Peake, G Peake, Leech; Robertson, J Williams (c); Hall, D Evans, Fortt; Rolfe, Jones; Goodfellow, Thomas, Miller

Replacements:  Turnbull, M Williams, Clarke, E Evans

Man-of-the-match:  Miller