Pentyrch 2nd XV 60-38 Barry 3rd XV

Tries: Avaient (2), Mepham, Forrester, Jones, J Thomas

Cons: Forrester (2), McCann, Avaient

BARRY 3rd XV was hoping to bring a poor run of results to an end as they travelled to Pentyrch.

Manager Frank Greig had the luxury of a replacement bench for this away friendly, and with the surplus of numbers it saw Ken Chow playing for a numerically inferior Pentyrch on the wing.

The away side started off brightly, and a simple move into midfield saw Mike Avaient sprint the length of the pitch to score in the corner. Newly appointed captain Ashley Forrester converted from out wide to give Barry a 7-0 lead.

It was not to last long however, as 14-men Pentyrch rallied to take advantage of some feeble tackling to score two tries.

Barry replied when scrum-half Rhidian Mepham sniped through to score, but this time the try was unconverted to leave the scores level.

Barry was having a tough time at the scrum against an experienced unit, and was also frequently turned over in the tight with a lack of commitment in the contact area. Despite this, captain Forrester managed to intercept from his own half and ran the length of the pitch to score to give the away side the lead.

This did not last long though. After the withdrawal of Mepham, thereby forcing a shuffling of the back division, the away side imploded. What followed was a series of missed tackles, lost scrums, poor decision making and aimless rugby, which the home side fully took advantage of. At half time the score was 38-19.

The second half fared little better for Barry, as Pentrych racked up the try count to go past the half century. Despite a better scrum, especially with the introduction of James Sullivan, the Barry defence leaked tries in the second interval and soon the game was completely out of reach for the visitors.

Barry finally rallied late on in an attempt to make the score respectable. After Mike Jones powered over from the blind side, brushing aside a feeble tackle by Chow, Dave Evans set up Jason Thomas to score in the corner.

Barry had the final say when Avaient intercepted a lofty pass to race through and score under the posts, and adding the conversion himself.

Team: Lee; Thomas, Forrester (C), Avaient, Rees; Bailey, Mepham; J Thomas, Quigley, Ring; Hall, Deyes; D Evans, Jones, J Evans

Replacements: Sullivan, van Birgelen, McCann

Man-of-the-match: Chow