Barry's struggles in the Admiral League continued with a 40-10 defeat at home to Llanharan.
Bombers chairman Mike Prosser pulled no punches after this latest defeat, having conceded six tries to pacy Llanharan and the result leaving them firmly anchored in the bottom three of Division One East Central.
“This was a hard, disappointing, frustrating day at the office,” he said. “We can train, set the structure, put all the tools in place, but ultimately today, there was no fizz in the bottle. We lacked intensity in defence, we lacked intensity in attack. The tyres went flat today.”
Barry didn’t have possession of the ball often enough or long enough to really trouble their visitors. Llanharan kept possession for lengthy spells, and when Barry did get the ball, potentially promising attacks were all too often brought to an end by errors.
“At this level, we can’t afford mistakes when margins are potentially slim,” said Prosser. “We should have been looking at keeping play in their half. If you are going to drop balls, do it in their half of the field.”
Llanharan were rarely severely tested, and Barry too often put pressure on themselves when clearance kicks went straight to an unchallenged opponent, allowing the speedy visitors to launch yet another, too frequently profitable, attack.
There were brief glimmers of hope. Barry hit back with a 24th minute penalty from Jack Davies in response to Llanharan’s first try, and then again four minutes into the second half when the Bombers were awarded a penalty try to cut the gap to nine points.
But on both occasions, they proved to be false dawns.
“It’s a valuable lesson,” said Prosser. “It’s something we will talk about, go away and look at, and be honest with ourselves. You’ve got to bear in mind the age of the side. It’s a young side, and we’ve got to be patient.”
It’s small consolation that bottom of the table Porth, like Barry, failed to pick up any points on Saturday. Fellow strugglers Rhiwbina, unable to raise a team, called off their home fixture against Abercynon.
Barry, in eighth place, are six points ahead of Rhiwbina, who have a game in hand, and nine points adrift of Llanishen. The Bombers face a tough trip to Abercynon on November 30th and another Vale derby at Penarth on December 14th before the Christmas break.
Llanharan scorers:
Tries: Mitchell Jones (11'), Jacob Williams (32'), Jack Walker (36'), Jack Dauncey (53'), Harrison Pritchard (60'), Jack Brooks (73')
Conversions: Scott Jones 5.
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Meanwhile, Penarth narrowly missed out on the chance to go top of Division One - with the Bears beaten 28-25 at leaders St Josephs, despite picking up two bonus points to leave them within touching distance.
Cowbridge slipped to back-to-back defeats in Division Two, going down 27-24 at home to St Albans - with leaders Caerphilly opening up a 12 point gap at the top.
Dinas Powys went down 17-5 at home to Tylorstown in Division Four, while Old Penarthians picked up the only win among the men's teams in the Vale, beating Cefn Coed 37-17 in Division Five.
And in the WRU Women's Championship, Old Penarthians lost 24-20 at Gwernyfed.
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