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Report by Ken Watkins

This was a crucial victory for Barry, ending a run of four straight defeats, and duly completing a league double. While not a game that will live long in the memory, the result was the lift that Barry so desperately required.

Derby matches are often physical and niggly, and this was no exception. Dinas Powys came looking for revenge for their opening day 8-7 defeat. And they made sure Barry had to work hard for their second slim victory against their neighbours.

A fierce wind, a pitch which inevitably cut up, and a large number of hold-ups for injuries made for a stop-start game. Flowing moves were few and far between, and with the conditions making handling difficult, both sides were often able to force turnovers.

“The message before the game was simple,” said head coach Liam Scott. “Get a W. After four losses, it’s a massive relief. I certainly didn’t expect it to be that scrappy as a game. But we’ll take the W and bounce into next week.

“We needed some winning momentum. But if I’m honest, we’ve played a lot better in some of the games we have lost before today. There is one real positive, and that’s the four points.”

The negative was a host of injuries to Barry’s forwards, which meant uncontested scrums for most of the second half. Which probably favoured Barry as their scrum had occasionally been under pressure before the interval.

Ellis Cockram, Jamie Oaten and Josh Trewartha all came off injured, but all three are expected to be available for the visit to Porth Quins the weekend. But prop Findlay Edwards, who left the action early after taking a blow to the head, is ruled out for two weeks.

Kyle Barros was narrowly off-target with a couple of long-range penalties, and Dinas Powys went ahead after 37 minutes, a close-range scrum driving over in the corner for Alfy Johnston to apply the finishing touch.

Barry replied with the last move of the half after Dinas Powys had been reduced to 14 following a yellow card. From the penalty Barry swung the ball out right, and then back across the pitch for Barros to score in the corner. He duly added the conversion.

In a scrappy second half Barry’s lineout showed improvement from the previous week. “At critical moments, especially in the last ten minutes of the game, the lineout was perfect,” said Scott.