Barry are into the semi-finals of the WRU Youth Plate following a 22-17 victory at Cowbridge.
Barry held off a late second-half fightback by their hosts in this Vale derby to clinch a semi-final place - the second time in three years they have made the last four of a national competition.
Cowbridge had started strongly. “For the first 15 minutes, we were under the cosh,” said head coach John Dimond, “but we took everything they could throw at us. We had a window then of about 20 minutes where we dominated.”
Barry scored all their points in that window and went in 22-3 ahead at the interval. “We knew they’d come back at us some time,” said Dimond, “but we had a good lead. We defended really solidly, but it was a squeaky last five minutes.”
The penalty count against Barry was high and the second half ran around 11 minutes longer than anticipated. With Cowbridge - “a big physical side who love the contact” - putting the pressure on, Barry had to work hard to secure the victory.
“Fair play to Cowbridge, they came to play and gave us a good test,” said Dimond, “and fair play to our boys. One or two silly little mistakes which allowed Cowbridge into our 22, but they gave everything, and keep finding little ways of getting out of trouble.”
Barry are the last East Wales team left in the competition. The others are all from West Wales - Gorseinon, who beat St Peter’s 41-10, Crymych, who were 28-7 winners at Caerleon, and Haverfordwest, who drew 15-15 at Trebanos, but went through as the away team.
The semi-finals will be played on neutral grounds, with the draw, date and venues yet to be announced. Once the draw is made Dimond will arrange a couple of friendlies, but will not fix a match for the weekend prior to the semi-final.2
“The players can get over all their knocks and scrapes. I want to go into it with a fully fit squad, the best possible squad."
“After that it will be back to league action, but at the moment the Plate is my focus,” said Dimond. “There are four teams of high quality in the semi-finals. We will have to bring our best game to that match.”
Barry scorers:
Tries - Morgan Prosser 2, Rauley Hunter
Conversions – Prosser 2; penalty – Prosser.
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