With our Hailey Park home in the grip of winter and under the curse of the Council we were grateful today for our new found friends at Barry U13’s who moved things around to squeeze us and the U16’s in as well as the minis. It meant the entire Llandaff North section were up early and heading for the coast.
Like Llantwit the Barry pitch comes with a slope, and added to this today a stiff downhill wind. Barry had already hosted us earlier in the year and whilst they are fighting well to survive they were again 2 short today. We leant them 2 players in each half and played with the wind and the slope. Although we naturally dominated possession having the strength of the elements Barry defended commendably. We huffed and puffed but in our first game since Caldicot in December there was Christmas rust. Morgan scored in one corner, Ben Hembury flew in on the other but with Chris unable to battle the wind with his kicks a 10-0 lead at half time didn’t look enough; especially since this year’s Barry vintage, although struggling, show fantastic spirit.
Oddly however, the boys rolled out probably a more polished performance uphill and into the wind. Some fine forward and back continuity saw two further scores to flush the home side out of the contest, the first of which an outstanding team try reminiscent and indeed a little U13 version of Gareth Edwards’ famous Baa Baas try from the 70’s! Ewan was on the end of it and man of the match Josh Hancock dragged three defenders over for the final play of the game. With this win early in January we’ve now already surpassed last year’s dismal U12 record and half the season still to go!
Result:- Barry U13’s 0 – 20 Llandaff North U13’s
Tries:- M.Strinati, B.Hembury, E.Calder, J.Hancock
Conversions:- None
Man of the Match:- J.Hancock
Tom Jameson
U13 manager
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