On a dry, but cold afternoon Narberth, after several away matches, welcomed Max Boyce’s Glynneath to the Lewis Lloyd ground. With Narberth Youth playing Whitland Youth on the adjoining pitch, there was an excellent crowd in attendance to watch the two games.

Due to injuries to seven of the back’s squad and a couple of tactical changes to the forwards, Narberth was once again fielding a much-changed team to the one which had beaten Skewen in an excellent match the previous week.

After a lively start from both teams, Narberth began to get the upper hand and spent much of the first quarter in the Glynneath half, but were unable to penetrate a strong and solid defensive unit. Eventually, the deadlock was broken when after a series of forward drives Glynneath were penalised at the breakdown and Narberth full back, Ianto Griffiths, kicked an easy penalty from near the posts (3-0). Narberth soon began to dominate possession, but despite continuously recycling the ball and spreading it wide, they were unable to find a way through. Then from a rare Glynneath attack, the ball was turned over by Narberth hooker Rhodri Owens and second row, Ryan Banner, picked up and drove forward. He then slipped the ball to Liam Hutchins who’d come sprinting through off his wing and when tackled he off-loaded to No.8 Richie Rees who raced for a full 30 metres to the Glynneath try line. Ianto Griffiths kicked the conversion to make the score 10-0 to Narberth.

Glynneath then upped their game and continued with a series of attacks around the Narberth 22 metre line. The Narberth defence held firm and just when it looked like Glynneath would get nothing for their efforts, a Narberth boot kicking the ball out of a ruck resulted in a penalty being awarded which was kicked by Glynneath centre Pat Murphy to make the score 10-3.

Narberth once again went on the attack and spent several minutes close to the Glynneath try line, but were again denied by a solid defence. Eventually after a five metre scrum Narberth changed tactics and with a perfectly weighted kick from fly half Jonathan Rodgers, winger Liam Hutchins caught the high ball right out on the touchline and crashed over the try line in the top corner of the pitch. The conversion was unsuccessful and Narberth left the field at half-time with a comfortable lead of 15-3.

The second half followed a similar pattern to the first half with Narberth having by far the greater share of possession and spending most of the time camped in or around the Glynneath 22 metre line without being able to add to their score. The Narberth forwards were once again dominant with several typical charges from prop Bradley Davies and skipper Alex Jenkins. Glynneath made sporadic attacks into the Narberth half, but on attempting to get the ball out wide the ball was intercepted by flanker Pat Roberts who sped up the touchline and then gave a perfectly timed pass to winger Ryan Davies (who had replaced Yannick Parker in his first match for Narberth) to score in the corner. The difficult conversion was unsuccessful (20-3). With the game as good as won, Narberth made various substitutions with Lewys Gibby replacing Rhys Lane, Dewi Williams replacing Richie Rees and Ryan Rees replacing Tom Slater.

For the next 15 minutes, Glynneath eventually managed to work their way into the game and with improved possession they created several attacks in the Narberth 22, but excellent defence by the entire Narberth team kept them out and they were unable to increase their score. Dan Smith then replaced Rhodri Owens at hooker in the final substitution and with there looking to be no further score, with the last play of the game and with Glynneath again desperately throwing the ball around in an effort to make ground, the ball was again intercepted by the alert Pat Roberts who scored under the posts. Ianto Griffiths kicked the conversion to leave the final score 27-3 to Narberth.

The club would like to thank the two room match sponsors for the day, in particular the club’s main sponsor, G. D. Harries, who were in the recently refurbished Folly Farm Otters Holt and the Hywel Griffiths Balcony Suite match sponsors being the Glen Hotel, Haverfordwest, who chose winger Liam Hutchins as man of the match. Many thanks must also go to the Supporters Club who made a substantial financial contribution to the refurbishment works.

Narberth fielded: Ianto Griffiths, Liam Hutchings, Joe Hutchings, Paul Davies, Yannick Parker (Ryan Davies), Jonathan Rogers, Rhys Lane (Lewys Gibby), Bradley Davies , Rhodri Owens (Dan Smith), Tom Slater (Ryan Rees), Ryan Banner, Alex Jenkins (Capt.),Pat Roberts, Tom Powell, Richard Rees (Dewi Williams).