AFTER the summer break and pre-season training it was back to business for the Barry 1st XV last Saturday when they entertained Croesyceiliog RFC in a start to the new season friendly match at the Reservoir Field.

With the visitors finishing in sixth place in division 2 east last season, a sister division to division 2 east central in which Barry finished in third place, the teams were expected to be well matched and this proved to be the case with Barry winning by the smallest of margins.

Barry won the toss and elected to play into what can only be described as a gale force wind presumably this was to try and contain the opponents as much as they could in the first half and then take advantage of the wind themselves in the second half.

From the onset, the visitors attacked strongly using the wind to full advantage as expected and pounded the Barry line for the first 10 minutes or so of the match without success due to some persistent defending by the Barry XV.

In the next 20 minutes or so both sides had an equal share of the ball and both had opportunities to score only to be let down by a mixture of poor handling due to the strong wind and resolute defending.

In the end it was the big powerful Croesyceiliog pack who took the first scalp when they pushed the Barry eight over their own line after a five yard scrum to score the first points of the match. With the conversion points added Barry were seven points down and at this stage did not seem to have an answer to the visitors attacking play.

After another five minutes or so Croesyceiliog scored again and with the conversion unsuccessful Barry found themselves 12 points adrift at half-time.

The second half was very much a mirror image of the first half with Barry taking full advantage of the unrelenting wind. In spite of this Croesyceiliog defended well and made a number of visits into the Barry half only to be stopped and sent back into their own half by long probing defensive kicks from outside half Einan Scott and full back Kyle Barros.

After 20 minutes or so of the half the Barry coaching staff decided to make some changes in their pack and this seemed to change the game in their favour as the Croesyceiliog eight were put under a lot of pressure.

After a number of strong forward rushes by Barry the visitors pack were put on the back foot and this led to front row stalwart Alyn Evans scoring his sides first points of the day. With full back Kyle Barros adding the extra points from wide out Barry were now only five points down.

Barry continued to attack and with 10 minutes left on the clock the Croesyceiliog full back was caught in possession behind his own line and from the resulting five-yard scrummage Barry scrum half Tom Lee went around the blindside to touch down making the score 12 - 12.

Kyle Barros added the extra points to put Barry in front for the first time in the match. For the remainder of the match both sides had an equal share of the action but neither were able to add further points and the game ended in a 14 - 12 win for the home side.

Considering this was the first game of the season for Barry it was a good run out for the team and an excellent result against very strong opposition who had already had the benefit of a couple of pre-season practice games under their belt. All players who took part in the game can be proud of the contribution they made to this result in the most testing conditions.

The next pre-season friendly for Barry is an away game against Lydney RFC on Saturday, August 27 with the first league match of the season being an away game against rivals Dinas Powys on Saturday, September 3.

Barry RFC Lottery numbers for Saturday, August 20, were 3, 10, 12 and 18, which failed to find a winner, the new jackpot for this Saturday's draw will be £2,450.