Barry RFC's youth side slipped to their first defeat in the Cardiff Premiership Blue league, beaten 47-12 at home to Aberdare.
The challenges faced by a small squad were evident on Saturday. The young Bombers, with key players ruled out through injury and then losing two more to injury during the game, inevitably went down to defeat against a strong and well-drilled Aberdare at a windswept Reservoir Field.
A try at the end of each half was all Barry had to show for their battling display. Head coach John Dimond felt Aberdare were "one of the best youth teams I’ve seen in a long time. Every mistake we made, they punished us."
"But no discredit to the boys. They stayed in it to the end and gave everything. Aberdare were clinical, and deserved every point they got."
"Our twelve might have been a bit better, but a couple of opportunities were missed. Another couple of scores might have been a fairer reflection.”
But Barry, despite winning their previous five games - four in pre-season - are struggling with the size of the squad. Dimond has around 20 players and a few injuries really hurt.
"We need a couple more players to give us a bit of a buffer. If we have a full squad out, we can be really competitive," he said.
An entertaining game was really settled in the first half-hour when pacey Aberdare ran in four tries for a 28-0 lead. Barry pulled one back on the stroke of half-time with a quick tap sending Joe Jenkins over and Tom Provis converting.
But any hopes of a Bombers revival were dashed when Aberdare restored their advantage with a fifth try eight minutes after the break.
Two more Aberdare tries followed - one when the hosts were a player down to a harsh yellow card. But the last word went to battling Barry, who applied some late pressure before Rhys Nicholls scored their second try two minutes from the end.
Barry face another tough test in a very strong Premiership Blue group on October 19th when Treorchy visit the Reservoir Field. The Zebras went down to a narrow 17-14 defeat by Aberdare, but followed that with a 48-26 victory over St Peter’s
Dimond feels the Premiership Black group would have presented less of a challenge for the Bombers, but “I’d rather be in Blue than in a weaker league with the boys not le/arning anything from it. The boys were downhearted after this, but we gave them a pep talk. They’ll bounce back.”
Aberdare scorers
Tries - Jack Piontecki 2, Jac Lewis 2, Noah Bradbeer, Harry Davies, Louis O’Neil
Conversions - Dylan Perry-Roberts 6.
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