Barry RFC Youth were beaten 28-14 at Merthyr in the East Wales Premier League.
The young Bombers' final warm-up game before the WRU Plate Final saw head coach John Dimond - who was missing a few key players - using the opportunity to give some of the fringe players a run-out against strong opposition.
It was, he said: “a game that could have gone either way, or even ended 21-all. It was small margins, and two scores. We messed up two, they capitalised on two."
"There wasn’t anything on the game for us because of our league position. It was a chance to get a bit of ring rust out of the boys who will be playing in the final."
“Merthyr are well-drilled and have a big pack, and their style of play is similar to ours,” he said. “It was good experience for the boys playing against them. I didn’t want to put my best side out because of the possibility of injuries. It’s a small window of three weeks to the final.”
Merthyr sit top of the league, with three wins from four matches, while Barry lie fourth, with one win from two games. The Bombers still have three matches to play, but Dimond will not fix dates for any of them until after the Plate final in Newport on May 5th.
“I think it would be detrimental to play a meaningless match before a national final and potentially damage one or two players.”
Barry will use the time prior to the final for training, and “making sure all the boys are healthy. We’ll possibly have an extra training session the week before the final. We’ll just sharpen it up now.”
The Plate final at Rodney Parade - against Gorseinon - is almost certain to be Dimond’s last game at the club, which he will be leaving after more than 20 years as a player and coach.
Barry scorers:
Tries - Tyler Reinholdt, Rauley Hunter
Conversions - Morgan Prosser 2
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