St Josephs 2nd XV 22 Barry 2nd XV 19

Tries: D Evans, Busuttil, Bragg

Cons: Jones, Pugh

BARRY 2nd XV ended their league season on a clear spring afternoon, welcoming the visit of St Josephs.

With the same opponents having put over 160 points past the home side on the last two occasions, expectations were not high. This was especially the case when coach Rhidian Scott and manager Ken Chow had to deal with a mounting injury list, which saw them promote Nath Davies and Chris Deyes from the Third XV, Lucas Davies from the Youth XV, and Tony Heard starting his first game in five months.

Against the wind and slope, and with the sun in their eyes in the first half, Barry knew they had to battle hard to keep themselves in the game. Unfortunately, with a misfiring line-out, possession and territory seemed easy to come by for St Josephs, who negated the power of the home pack by once again opting for uncontested scrums. Surely this should be outlawed to preserve the integrity of the game.

It was no surprise when the visitors opened the scoring with an unconverted try out wide, and some supporters feared the worst.

This was, however, a sterner Barry side and despite constantly falling foul of some questionable refereeing decision which left both teams baffled, the home side rallied with some excellent carries from the likes of Wayne Jones, Lloyd Dutton and Dominic Busuttil.

Just reward arrived when scrum half John Dimond released the line of backs and the ball found its way to Dave Evans, who crashed over in the corner to score. Jones failed to add the extras.

St Josephs would go into the interval with the lead after they scored a well-worked push-over try in the corner which went unconverted, but the game at half-time was still in the balance.

With Julian McTavish, Jon Morris and Gerwyn Pugh all thrown on at half-time to freshen up the side, Barry began with a spring in their step and it was not long before they troubled the scorers.

The territory was gained by the forwards, but a clever switch in direction by the half backs saw Busuttil crash through under the posts virtually untouched. Jones added the extras to send Barry into the lead.

With the wind firmly behind them, now literally, Barry poured forward for another score, and it came when some neat play in midfield released Neil Bragg out wide, who outpaced all defenders to score his first try for the club. Pugh added the extras superbly from the touchline to give Barry a nine point advantage.

Despite having the game under control, Barry failed to add to their advantage, missing several opportunities with both backs and forwards to blame for a combination of poor decision making and haphazard handling with the line at their mercy.

St Josephs duly got back into the game following some loose kicking by the inexperienced Barry back line, and in a matter of five minutes the home lead was gone via two breakaway tries.

The home side rallied one last time and bore down on the St Josephs line but once again their effort was thwarted by the referee’s interpretation of the laws and the chance was gone.

While the effort was commendable Barry would rue their inexperience and lack of ruthlessness for this defeat.

Team: Evans; Bragg, Busuttil, Knapman, N Davies; W Jones, Dimond; Heard, Turnbull, L Davies; Dutton, L Jones (C); Goodfellow, Miles and Rolfe

Replacements: McTavish, Morris, Deyes and Pugh

Man-of-the-match: Busuttil