Fixture

 

At a wet and blustery Reservoir Field last Saturday, Barry maintained their recent good form beating Treherbert 30 points to 10 and earning a bonus point in the process to move into 5th position in the league.

Playing against the elements and slope in the first half, Barry took the sensible option of keeping ball in hand and were rewarded as early as the 5th minute, when Einan Scott took the opportunity to slot over a penalty for an early lead.

With the visitors also opting to run the ball when possible, an entertaining game ensued, obviously littered with unforced errors on both sides but made all the more enjoyable due to the attitude of the players.

With the strong wind at their backs the visitors held territorial advantage and gained some dangerous field positions to bring their backs into play and but for the last pass not going to hand could have scored on more than one occasion.

At this stage the home defence had been sound and they continued to counter attack when possible and following a scrum, the ball was fed to Brad White, who spotting the drift raced into the gap to cross from 50yds out for a fine try, successfully converted by Scott to give them a 10 point lead after 20 mins.

From the restart the visitors were awarded a penalty close to the posts which was successful.

Attack and counter attack was the order of the day as the half progressed, with chances being missed by both sides as conditions took their toll.

A 70 yd clearance from the visitors once again took near to the Barry line and despite initially winning the ball against the head Treherbert some how managed to regain it for the ball to reach the outside half who cleverly beat of the home tacklers to score a fine try which with the conversion successful, brought the scores level.

Barry were having some success in stealing opposition ball at both scrum and lineout giving them the chance to launch attacks and after one such effort broke down the visitors nearly scored on half time with Barry finding it difficult to control the greasy ball, only for the visitors to concede a penalty to Barry's relief.

There was however further reward for Barry as their forwards drove upfield forcing the visitors to concede two penalties in succession, giving Scott the chance to give Barry the lead from 40yds, a chance he duly took.

With Barry to play with the elements in the second half,  the three point lead had been earned through a mixture good tactical awareness combined with a solid defensive effort by the whole team and to switch with any sort of lead was an achievement in itself bearing in mind the elements.

Luke O'Sullivan had replaced the injured Owain Poole prior to half time for his long awaited comeback from injury.

As expected, it was Barry's turn to have the territory as the second half began, but several attempts to drive over were repelled by some stubborn defence by the visitors.

This defensive effort was to hold out for nearly 15 mins. as they frustrated Barry and it took a clever snipe from Tom Lee close to line to break the deadlock and with the kick successful - Barry led by 10 points.

Barry substituted James Hadfield and Liam Ring for Dave Taylor and Sion Vidal as they began to run the ball at every opportunity and but for some handling errors and a bit of white line fever could have been further ahead.

However it was only a matter of time before they would get a score and it followed a good drive at the scrum which created space on the outside for Scott to feed Dave Provis to go over the first time he touched the ball after coming on as a sub.The kick from wide out failed but gave Barry the lead 25-10 with 12 mins left

The pattern of the half remained as the visitors found it difficult to get out of their 22 and were under constant pressure as Barry searched for the try that would earn them a vital bonus point.

Chances came and went, and it was left to nimble footed James Hollister who received a tap penalty to force his way through and over the line for a try which went unconverted and ended the scoring and the match.

The game was a credit to both sides who provided the spectators with an entertaining game in difficult conditions.

Next Saturday Barry play away at St Peters kick off 2.30pm in a difficult League fixture

Just a reminder that the Xmas Draw takes place on the 5th December and we would ask that those selling tickets return the counterfoils to the Club as soon as possible, they can be left at the Bar with Carol.

 

Team:  Barros; Ryan, Perry, White, Adams; Scott, Lee; Hollister, Evans, Ring; G Jones, Oaten; Poole, Hadfield (c), H Jones

Replacements:  Vidal (for Hadfield), Taylor (for Ring), O'Sullivan (for Poole), Provis (for Adams)