Bedlinog 17 pts. Narberth 17

Last Saturday, Narberth made their second visit to the isolated location of Bedlinog for their away Championship League game. A small village nestled in a valley, the club is clearly a nursery for nearby Premier League club Merthyr.

The ground is situated at the foot of the valley on the site of an old coal mine. The pitch was in relatively good condition, with a slightly soft surface and a good grass cover, under overcast skies it set the scene for Bedlinog to kick off.

Again the Otters fielded a number of young players as well as several of their experienced players, though wing Nick Gale pulled his hamstring in the warm-up and had to be replaced by Joe Hutchings.

The Otters immediately showed intent, making several phased forays into the home club’s half and within five minutes were seven points ahead. They had advanced to near the Bedlinog try line, a back-pedalling Bedlinog scrum caused their scrum-half Damon Pritchard to attempt to clear his lines, only for an alert Rhys Lane to knock down his kick. He collected the rolling ball and scampered over the line to touch down, with Jonathan Rogers converting.

Bedlinog responded, hitting the rucks at the breakdown fiercely as they attempted to gain ground, only to be halted by a strong Narberth defence.

The Otters eight were strong in the tight encounters ,ensuring good ball at their put-ins.

Bedlinog suffered the referee’s wrath at one of these scrums, enabling fly-half Jonathan Rogers to put in a huge kick to the Bedlinog five-metre line. At the lineout, Alex Jenkins rose above the opposition to take clean ball, giving Rhys Lane the chance to move it out to the threequarters, only for an interception to ruin a clear chance of a further try.

Bedlinog attempted to run out, but were forced to kick the ball clear, straight into the hands of fullback James Stephenson, who returned the ball, gaining much ground as it landed on the five-metre line and rolled into touch.

A few minutes later, on 15 minutes, the Otters went further ahead. Bedlinog infringed at the lineout, enabling Narberth to move the ball across field before being brought to ground, where a ruck enabled them to reverse the direction. James Stephenson entered the movement, making ground and via a couple of further phases, Jonathan Rogers slipped the ball to Liam Hutchings, who, displaying sheer determination, weaved his way through the defensive shield to score a fine try. Jonathan Rogers converted, giving the Otters a 14-points to nil lead.

Then on 23 minutes, the referee adjudged centre Paul Davies to have tackled high and he was sent to the sin bin with a yellow card. The Bedlinog fly-half kicked the penalty into touch close to the Otters’ line and from their lineout, the pack scrambled the ball over the line, with lock Tyler Owen touching down for a converted try.

Bedlinog were re-energised by their score and advanced via several phases.

Within minutes, though, the Otters were back threatening the Bedlinog line, Jonathan Rogers attempted a drop goal, which unfortunately was wide of the mark.

Bedlinog kicked out and once again the Otters were in attack mod. The move started with Joe Hutchings and ended with brother Liam on the opposite wing kicking ahead and only just losing the race for the touchdown.

In fact, further forays into the Bedlinog half saw Liam Hutchings attempting to find a chink in the opposition defence with his aggressive running, while both James Stephenson and Jonathan Rogers attempted to pin Bedlinog back in their half with several long high kicks.

At the scrum, Bedlinog began to turn the screw on the Otters eight and won a penalty 40 metres out, but the fly-half failed to find the posts.

The ball was cleared, with the referee blowing for half-time with the Otters 14-7 in the lead.

Whilst the Otters deserved the lead, there were signs that Bedlinog were not going to be a pushover.

Early in the second half, the Otters replaced young Rhys Davies with Bradley Davies and at number eight Steffan Phillips replaced Richard Rees.

The fresh legs gave the Otters more of an impetus and they reached the five-metre line with a series of phased moves, with Steffan Phillips very prominent.

Bedlinog defended strongly, but on 54 minutes conceded a penalty i front of the posts, which Jonathan Rogers easily converted into three points, giving the Otters a 17-7 lead.

At this point, Ianto Griffiths replaced Jonathan Rogers at fly-half for the Otters.

A minute later, having kicked out and gained a foothold in the Otters half, the Bedlinog fullback, Dan Parry from the Merthyr club, split the Otters defence with a cleverly angled break to score near the posts for their fly-half Damon Pritchard to convert, bringing Bedlinog within touching distance of the Otters, with the score now at 17-14.

Bedlinog upped the pressure and began to look a well-drilled squad. The contest was now a real battle for possession, with some strong tackling by both teams. The game became a see-saw of movement, with it going from end to end. Unfortunately a few Narberth offloads were missing their target, ending promising moves.

Bedlinog were now also playing to the margins of the offside rule in order to stifle the Otters’ attempt to move forward.

The Otters brought fresh legs on again at 66 minutes, with young Rhodri Owen replacing Dan Smith and Sean Jenkins replacing Tom Powell.

The Otters set up a promising move when Steffan Phillips collected a high kick from the Bedlinog fullback to pass to Ianto Griffiths, who was able to break forward and when challenged passed to the ever-alert Liam Hutchings, who powered forward, offloading to Rhys Lane, who was brought to ground, with Bedlinog regaining the ball with an aggressive ruck.

On 75 minutes, Tom Slater had to leave the field with a leg injury and was replaced by Rhys Davies. We then witnessed a kicking duel between Ianto Griffiths and the Bedlinog fullback, who eventually managed to place a huge kick into Otters’ half 10 metres from the line.

The Otters safely cleared the ball from the lineout, but on 79 minutes, they were penalised at a ruck and the Bedlinog fullback converted the penalty to bring the scores level at 17-17.

The Otters attempted to run the ball from their 22, with Liam Hutchings again showing his worth, aggressively running and aiming to find a way through, before being forced into touch.

At this point, Bedlinog were penalised for offensive language and the referee indicated a favourable kicking position. Unfortunately, Ianto Griffiths’s kick sailed wide of the posts.

The game had reached 80 minutes, but the referee played injury time. Again the Otters ran with the ball, with Liam Hutchings getting into the far corner where the ball was offloaded to Paul Davies, who touched down, with most of Bedlinog piling onto him. The referee was unsighted and called a scrum, which the Otters heeled, Ianto Griffiths gained the ball and attempted to touch down, only for Bedlinog to gain possession and kick into touch, for the referee to blow full-time.

Whilst the Otters had opportunities and were unlucky that the referee was unsighted, Bedlinog proved to be well-organised and on their second half performance possibly deserved the draw.

Head coach Sean Gale stated he was ‘disappointed’ at the result.

“We are not yet playing as well as last season, we gained two points, yet we were unlucky with the high tackle. Paul Davies scored in the corner, but it was given. We had plenty of chances to win the game and, although we were able to put fresh legs on the field, Bedlinog gained the upper hand in the end.

“It is a hard place to win, I am not disheartened, the players tried really hard, our accuracy in passing was down on previous occasions. We did not have the rub of the green, but we had opportunities to win the game. However we came away with two points for the draw.”

The man of the match award deservedly went to Liam Hutchings.

Narberth fielded: James Stephenson, Joe Hutchings, Keiron Jones, Paul Davies, Liam Hutchings, Jonathan Rogers (Ianto Griffiths), Rhys Lane, Rhys Davies (Bradley Davies), Dan Smith (Rhodri Owen), Tom Slater, Jake Simm, Alex Jenkins (capt.), Dewi Williams, Tom Powell (Sean Jenkins), Richard Rees (Steffan Phillips).