St Peters 38 Barry 16

Tries: Ryan

Cons: E Scott

Pens: E Scott (3)

BARRY travelled to the capital to face St Peters in the semi-final of the East District Cup on a crisp Tuesday night.

With numerous players, including top try-scorer Brad White unavailable for various reasons, head coach Jon Bryant and forwards coach Liam Scott had to juggle their resources, handing a start to Wayne Jones after he impressed with the 2nd XV on the weekend, whilst there was also a 1st XV debut for Lloyd Dutton from the bench.

Despite Barry performing admirably in their league this season, their opponents were from a division higher and they certainly started the match the better side as they probed an uncertain Barry defence. Following a sharp exchange in midfield, the defensive line was broken and the speedy St Peters winger scored in the corner for an unconverted try with barely minutes gone.

With supporters fearing the worst, Barry rolled up their sleeves and put some phases of their own in an attempt to get back in the game. Following good drives from Tanner, Evans and Vidal, Einan Scott got Barry on the score sheet with a well-struck penalty.

St Peters became increasingly frustrated with the lack of possession and this transgressed to them conceding another kickable penalty, with which Scott duly obliged to give Barry the lead.

Rattled, the side from Division 2 began to make uncharacteristic errors as Barry’s confidence grew. Following a high tackle, the referee had no option but to send the offending player to the bin, with Scott’s boot increasing Barry’s lead.

Barry fully took advantage of their numerical superiority when following a break from midfield; the ball was recycled to find Danny Ryan who dived through to score. Scott expertly converted from the touchline to give Barry a 16-5 lead.

With St Peters now back to 15, they regained their composure and possession, and they soon found themselves back in the game with an unconverted try from their dangerous winger.

It was Barry who were rattled as half-time loomed. After a kickable penalty opportunity was converted, smart play from the talented St Peters backs, their winger completed his hat-trick to give them an 18-15 lead at the interval.

The Barry supporters would hope that their team would rally in the second half as they did so often in the campaign, but it was not to be as the opponents showed far too much experience and know-how.

With the Cardiff side clearly superior in both scrum and line-out, the Barry defence was put under tremendous pressure and early in the second half they conceded another try out wide.

Worse was to come as replacement scrum half Tom Lee was sin-binned, and St Peters fully took advantage to ram home their advantage in those 10 minutes.

Barry tried their utmost in the dying minutes for one final score, but it was not to be and in the end they lost to the better side on the night.

Despite the defeat, the effort by the players was commendable and the team will now be looking to concentrate to finish strongly in their league campaign.

Team: T Scott; Ryan, Perry, Provis, W Jones; E Scott, Gallivan; Evans, Vidal, Hollister; Tanner (C), Giddings; C Scott, O Poole and H Jones

Replacements: Pirso, Sullivan, Dutton, Miles, Lee, Mepham and T Poole

Man-of-the-match: Vidal