Barry savour the points

11:25am Thursday 19th October 2006

COWBRIDGE 0 BARRY 1ST XV 64 SO MANY years have passed since the last encounter between these two sides at first team level that none of the Barry players had played senior rugby at this venue before.

With Cowbridge having lost so many players since last season and a difficult start this year with no wins and an average 46 points against for each game, there were high hopes among the Barry supporters before kick-off that this should be a big victory.

So it proved to be, with the Barry threequarters grabbing the majority of the spoils.

It was back row forward Hywel Jones, though, who started off the try feast on the 10-minute mark, breaking away from a rolling maul 15 metres out to score.

Minutes later left wing Peter O'Sullivan scored the first of his brace, when, from a 22m scrum, he beat his man on the blind side to dive into the corner.

On the half-hour mark a similar try followed after good link up play between No 8 Jason Evans and centre Cummings to put him clear.

Outside half Andy Griffiths grabbed the first of his seven consecutive conversions. Half-time score 0-22.

Cummings got started on his try count early in the second half through a strong hand off on his opposite number to enable him to break through for a 30m run to the try line.

Scrum half John Dimond put in a fine performance until injury forced him off 15 minutes into the second half, to enable the welcome return from injury of Geraint Manning.

A strong run by winger Marvin Cordle saw No 8 Evans miss a golden opportunity to get the forwards on the score sheet. From the resulting scrum Griffiths made no mistake in crossing the try line as he sliced through a yawning defensive gap for his second try.

The hard working front row of Haskell, Williams and Hollister were rewarded when the latter got on the end of a quick tap penalty move at pace to force himself over for a try.

With the opposition demoralised, coach Andrew Prosser replaced Williams in the hooker berth and James Hadfield came on for scorer Jones.

Griffiths grabbed his hat-trick with 15 minutes remaining, and Cum-mings the last two tries of the match to gain his.

The final score came after considerable efforts by Cowbridge to cross the Barry line, saw turnover ball allow Cummings to break free and race from within his 10m line to score. The conversion kick was the last action of the game.

There is no match for the 1st XV this weekend.

Contact the clubhouse for 2nd XV or Youth team game arrangements.

Next match for the 1st XV will be a more difficult encounter with Cefn Coed, at home at the Reservoir Field, on Saturday, October 28, ko 2.30pm.