TENBY TODAY | SPORT | It could have been so different!

Local News

This Week

Comments

Sport

It could have been so different!

Friday, 06 November 2009

Tonmawr 25 pts. Narberth 15

The scoreline may suggest otherwise, but the reality was so much different, Narberth could have won this game.
Had it not been for some indiscipline and some wonderful kicking by replacement outside-half Juan Pablo Socino, an Argentine U20 international, the visitors to Tonmawr could have come home with a fourth victory of the season under their belts.
How the Otters must wish to have a player of his standing in their squad; yet instead, the short yet stocky South American will ply his trade in the Pelenna valley for the remainder of the season.
Narberth began the game well and were 3-0 up within two minutes when Craig Jones slotted over a penalty. This was cancelled out a minute later when opposite number Warren Davies kicked one for the Ton.
Play was suspended soon after when Narberth wing Tom Bonnell was knocked unconscious after being accidentally struck by an elbow of a team-mate and was hospitalised as a result. The enforced 10-minute break obviously affected the visitors as they buckled under an onslaught by the home team and conceded a try when Dan Smith dived over.
Jones missed a penalty for Narberth and immediately gave up the kicking duties for the day to hand them over to Roger Davies, who was playing his first game of the season for Narberth since signing in the week. His impressive all-round display alongside his brother Richard, suggests Narberth can build on this and utilise the pace of Nick Jones, who showed his abilities with some barnstorming second-half runs.
Tonmawr increased the lead towards the end of the first half when a rolling maul resulted in a try for Dano Roberts, although Davies kicked a penalty soon after to reduced the deficit.
The home side lost blindside flanker Craig Moses to a yellow card and Davies did the honours to make it 13-9 at half-time. This gave Narberth a chance.
Their second-half performance was an improvement on their first, which was plucky and determined, yet lacking in flair. This changed once they swapped ends and with ball in hand they began to stretch the home team’s defences.
Another Davies penalty brought them within a point of the home side, who made the substitution that would change both teams’ fortunes.
On came Socino to make an immediate impression as he kicked a penalty sweetly between the uprights. A minute later he added another and one more for good measure, from just inside Narberth’s half. All three sailed effortlessly between the posts.
Jones added one more to his tally for Narberth to make it 22-15 and with home team number eight Andrew Gwynne sin-binned, Narberth had their chance to pounce. Their enthusiasm got the better of them and they were penalised for going over the top. No points for guessing who made them pay as the score rose by another three points.
As the minutes ticked by, Narberth pulled out all the stops. Nick Jones went close from a quick tap penalty following a fine run down the left, but he was stopped in his tracks by a fine tackle from fullback Austen Howells, which summed up the Otters’ afternoon.
“It was a much-improved performance by us and the coaches told us we could be happy with how we played,” said visiting fullback Matthew Davies. “But they were so hard to break down.”
Narberth: Matthew Davies; Tom Bonnell, Richard Davies, Roger Davies, Nick Jones; Craig Jones, Adrian Killa; Tom Slater, Dan Smith, Justin Hughes, Chris James, Alex Jenkins, Gareth Bateman, Simon Griffiths, Colin Davies, Replacements - Andrew Davies, Mark Hayward, William Russell, Steffan Phillips.