Swansea 27 - Narberth 10: The final scoreline was not a true reflection of what was a closely fought battle in the first round of the WRU National Cup against Premier League Swansea on Saturday (writes P. S.).

St. Helens, a famous ground, was in fine shape, with an excellent flat playing surface. The Otters arrived along with a large contingent of supporters who were well received by the Swansea committee. In fact, the Swansea’ chairman’s address in the programme indicated the respect and warmth of welcome to the Narberth club.

One did wonder whether the All Whites had taken a good look at the Otters previously, since they fielded a second row who looked down on Alex Jenkins, one of the tallest players in the Championship League, and a formidable front row with Ospreys experience. The Otters’ strength being their pack, there was clearly a challenge.

However, this was not the strongest Otters squad, with opportunities to blood some younger players from the bench. Starting for the first time this season was winger and former Otter, Will Lewis, recently transferred back from Swansea. Veteran hooker Dan Smith is still recuperating, so Rhodri Owen continued as a capable replacement.

Swansea kicked off and, as expected, both teams tested each other with an initial high ball kicks. It became obvious almost immediately that both teams were up for the challenge and several fierce tackles were being made.

A feature of the first half was the number of times the Otters were penalised in the scrum, in the rucks, at the breakdown and sometimes in the lineout. Otters supporters’ ire began to rise at what appeared to be injustice. The result of these penalties was that they were being kicked back into their own half.

From one of these judgements, early on, Swansea were awarded a kickable penalty when the Otters’ defence was penalised for offside and fullback Luke Griffiths stepped up to give the All Whites a 3-0 lead.

The next incident at 10 minutes saw Otters’ second row Jake Simm being taken off with a serious hand injury after he went to ground in a tackle and in the subsequent ruck was stamped on. The injury proved serious and he was later admitted to hospital for surgery. Jake was replaced from the subs bench by Tom Powell.

Five minutes later, Swansea scored their first try. Again Lady Luck was on their side. Fullback Luke Griffiths kicked high towards the Otters’ 22 near the touchline, where the ball bounced fortuitously for Swansea, in that it bounced away from the Narberth defender for Griffiths, who had followed up his kick, to catch it and sprint clear to touch down for the try, which he expertly converted.

The Otters responded fiercely in midfield, but were penalised at the breakdown, with the referee awarding Swansea a scrum.

It became obvious that the Otters had the upper hand in the tight, pushing Swansea back many metres, but again they were penalised.

Undeterred they continued to battle for possession and from one good lineout, scrum-half Rhys Lane broke clear of the Swansea defence and made 20 metres with his break before being brought to ground.

A few minutes later, with the Otters’ threes attacking, the Swansea winger received a yellow card for a blatant knock-on. The Otters immediately went on the attack, with the penalty kick placed into touch on the 22. With a clean catch, the Otters set up a rolling maul, which a Swansea player attempted to collapse, but instead they were awarded a scrum.

From the Swansea scrum, the Otters pushed them off the ball, only for the home side to be awarded a penalty.

They then kicked to touch and at the subsequent lineout just inside their own half were aarded another penalty. Scrum-half Chris Morgan took a quick tap and dashed forward before passing to centre Mike Evans, who deceived the Otters’ defence and sprinted clear to touch down for a try.?Again Luke Griffiths converted giving Swanse

Dscussing the official’s decision-making with the Swansea chairman, he commented that at least he was consistent. There must have been a polite discussion at half-time, however, as in the second half, the Otters began to gain some penalty awards of their own.

Clearly there was fun and games going on in the front row, because on 46 minutes, Swansea hooker Ifan Phillips was shown a yellow card.

Immediately before this, there was a good Otters threequarter move when Keiron Jones attempted to put Tom Powell clear before being brought to ground.

To overcome the changed front row situation, Swansea brought off the bench Greg Cunliffe, with Richard Murphy being withdrawn.

The Otters were awarded a scrum under the posts and, as they applied pressure moving forward, the referee awarded a further penalty. Surprisingly, the ball spun out on the Otters’ side and the Swansea defence managed to snuff out the threat.

At this point both teams made changes. The Otters took off Dan Jacobs, bringing on Tom Slater, resulting in Tom Kaijack moving to loose-head in the front row. In the backs, Johnny Morgan replaced Nick Gale.

Then, at a midfield exchange, Greg Cunliffe was shown a red card for blatantly punching Tom Kaijack in front of the referee. This forced Swansea to bring prop Tom Ham into the front row.

From the penalty, the Otters kicked into touch in the Swansea half. Alex Jenkins took the catch, before the referee awarded the Otters another penalty. This time Ianto Griffiths kicked to the five-metre line. Again Alex Jenkins took clean ball and set up a rolling maul which, despite a desperate Swansea effort, rumbled over the try line for back row Richard Rees to touch down. Unfortunately Ianto was wide of the posts with the conversion.

Further changes were made, with Mathew Morgan replacing the experienced Rhys Lane. Mathew faced a tough initiation on the famous ground and was quickly under pressure. He fed Ianto Griffiths who kicked to touch. From their lineout, Swansea scored on the far side via a prop, with the try again being converted by Luke Griffiths.

Four minutes later, the Otters scored their second try. Winning a ruck, they made ground before again being taken down, but again successfully rucking, Mathew Morgan passed out to Ianto Griffiths, who threw a long pass to Keiron Jones for him to free Jack Price to run clear and touch down. Unfortunately, the conversion failed, leaving the score at 24-10.

At this point, Jonathan Rogers came off the bench to replace Ianto Griffiths.

Further Swansea pressure saw Johnny Morgan being forced into touch behind the try line. Before the five-metre scrum was taken, the Otters brought back Tom Kaijak to replace Dan Jacobs. The Otters cleared their line, but Swansea came back having won two further penalties and with the second, Luke Griffiths took the final score to 27-10.

With difficult encounters ahead in the league, the Otters have suffered further injuries, with Jake Simm’s serious hand injury requiring a metal plate to be inserted and he will now probably be out for the rest of the season.

The Otters gave a good account of themselves and were unfortunate to suffer all the penalties in the first half which halted their attacks.

Commentating on the game, director of rugby, Sean Gale, stated: “I was well pleased with the performance, the defence was superb, the pack controlled the tight. The discipline was good and we looked good in attack. We were just unlucky with the refereeing decisions. Overall I was happy with the performance, it was not about the result. There were a lot of good performances out there, the boys put their bodies on the line. Rhys Lane was excellent and man-of-the-match. I was really pleased with the all round performance.”

Narberth fielded: Nick Gale (Johnny Morgan), Jack Price, Keiron Jones, Jake Jenkins, Will Lewis, Ianto Griffiths (Jonathan Rogers), Rhys Lane (Mathew Morgan), Dan Jacobs (Tom Slater), Rhodri Owens, Tom Kaijak, Jake Simm (Tom Powell), Alex Jenkins (capt.), Richard Rees, Andrew Cooke, Steffan Phillips.

Subs not used: Bradley Davies, Harry Phillips.