NARBERTH 22 pts NEATH 19

Narberth entertained Premiership side Neath in a pre-season friendly at the Lewis Lloyd ground on Saturday.

And after an excellent performance, they gave themselves an early season confidence boost by running out winners by 22 points to 19.

The Otters got their noses in front with a touchdown by flanker James Bain against his former team-mates, with Nick Gale landing the conversion to open up a 7-0 lead.

After a number of missed chances, the visitors eventually got on the scoreboard when winger Aaron Grabham grabbed a try as he got on the end of a kick through by scrum-half Chris Morgans.

The try went unconverted, leaving the Otters with a two-point advantaage at the half-time interval.

This was stretched to five points after the break when Nick Gale banged over a penalty goal for Narberth, but Neath hit back with a try by flanker Aled Morris, converted by Iwan Evans, to give the visitors the lead for the first time in the match.

Their joy was short-lived, though, as Gale intercepted to bag Narberth’s second try and this was soon followed by a third from centre Jack Price, with Gale also adding the extras to take his side’s tally up to 22 points.

It was Neath who had the final say, though, as flanker Charlie Davies crossed for the last try, which was converted by Evans, to narrow the gap to just three points in the end.

It was a good run out for the Otters who now look forward to their first Championship match against Pontypool away tomorrow (Saturday).