Fixture

Barry entertained St Peters in their second League game of the season hoping to improve on the previous weeks narrow defeat at Dinas Powys.

The Rocks under coach Mark Ring enjoy playing at  a high tempo and with pace in the backs Barry would need to be at their best if they were to get the win.

Early exchanges saw the visitors on the attack,  Barry with a solid defence thwarted the onslaught but this came at a price as they lost Captain Hadfield to injury within the opening minutes.

Barry surprised the Rocks with a scrum against the head from which they gained  a penalty after a handbag moment saw the referee issue a yellow card to both sides.

Winning the resultant lineout Barry were awarded a further penalty which was converted by Lee for the lead.

It was essential that Barry kept the ball in hand and not allow the speedy Rocks backs any chance to launch attacks and they did this to good effect when  White was given space to attack on the outside the ball reaching Ryan for the first try of the game which though not converted gave the home side an 8 point lead after 17 mins.

As expected the visitors came back and camped in the home 22 but were held by some solid defending.

The referee spoke to the Barry eight regarding the scrummaging and awarded the Rocks a penalty.Opting for the scrum the referee immediately blew his whistle to award a penalty try to the confusion of the crowd.which with the conversion brought the sides to within a point with 22 mins gone.

Barry stayed on the wrong side of the referee and conceded more penalties and were to go behind as an infringement on the floor gave the visitors the chance to take the lead which they duly did.

When Barry kept the ball in hand they always looked threatening and the message was clearly there as to the tactics to adopt.Regretfully their game became a mixture of good hands and  bad kicking and led to them being put under pressure as half time approached.

The final minutes of the half saw the Rocks in control but failing to turn this into points as Barry defended well and ended the half by taking a second scrum against the head.

With the slope now to their advantage it was hoped that if they got their tactics right the game was there to win.

This didn't materialise as they chose to kick for territory, fine if it's effective but too often this was not the case and allowed the Rocks to counterattack.It also meant that Barry were living off scraps of possession and struggling to match the tempo of the opposition but even so the defence held firm.

The home scrum was being put under pressure too as the Rocks tried to turn this superiority into points but for all they tried their only reward was a penalty as Barry although appearing disjointed somehow kept the scoreline to

within 5 points.

The pattern of the half continued and despite replacements Barry continued to struggle and it was no surprise when they went further behind as the Rocks drove over from close to the Barry line to give them the lead at 20 points to 8 with an hour gone.

Although Barry continued to attack when possible nothing seemed to be going their way as either passes or kicks went astray or the referee intervened to prevent any momentum, and it was from one loose clearance that the Rocks were to go further ahead with a good try as their winger found the perfect angle to bisect the home defence and cross for an unconverted try and a lead of 25 - 8 with 15 mins. left.

Somehow Barry found within themselves something extra and began to play with the pace and skill the supporters know they possess. They began to harry and hound the Rocks into errors and attacked with pace good handling skills.This effort deserved to be rewarded and after being held up short a couple of times Perry broke the defence with a powerful charge to the line which with the conversion by Scott reduced the deficit to 10 points with still 8 mins. left.

From the restart Barry continued to attack the visitors and although camped in their 22 and getting close on three occasions they couldn't find that next score that would have given them a consolation bonus point leaving the final score 25 - 15 in the Rocks favour.

It must be said , not as excuse, but with one or two influential players missing and losing the Captain so early in the game didn't help but there are basic lessons to be learnt.

Firstly we are a better side when we play with ball in hand and retain possession and secondly if we are kicking for territory we need to be accurate. Failure to achieve either of these in the game today proved costly

The effort of the players cannot be faulted and with a bit of tweeking I am sure they will get back the winning habit.

Next week the team travel to undefeated Llantrisant with a coach leaving the Club at 12.30 pm and kick off at 2.30pm

This weeks Lottery which failed to find a winner was drawn after the game when numbers 04 -11 - 22 and 24

came out with next weeks jackpot increasing to £2560