Narberth 39 pts. Felinfoel 8

Narberth continued their bright start to the season with a convincing win at home to Felinfoel who were making their first visit to the Lewis Lloyd ground in the SWALEC Welsh National League.

On a glorious afternoon for rugby, the Otters revelled in the conditions to run in six tries and to claim more bonus points.

Felinfoel gave notice of why they deserved to be promoted last season with some fine attacking moves, but the Narberth defence was up to the task and usually the attacks broke down through a combination of firm defence and handling errors.

Narberth outside-half Aled Davies gave his team the lead in the first minute with a short range penalty and after 12 minutes winger Tom Bonnell continued where he left off last week with an excellent finish and to run in from the right touchline under the posts for a try converted by Aled Davies.

The move had been started by flanker Andrew Dennis and taken on by Richard Davies, before the speedy winger was released.

Felinfoel clawed back three points with a short distance penalty by outside-half Jason Davies.

The visitors suffered a blow after 33 minutes when prop Daniel Jacob was sent to the sin bin and during the time he was off the field the Otters scored two more tries.

The first was scored by hooker Dan Smith, who finished off a move in the left corner when Narberth number eight Jim Kaumahotoya picked up the ball from the base of the scrum near the Felinfoel line. Although his burst for the line was halted, he smuggled the ball to Smith to cross for an unconverted try.

In injury time, Steve Martin, who was playing at fullback, picked up the ball on the halfway line from a quickly taken lineout. He set off on an individual run which, in the words of former Tenby player Richard James, opened up the Felinfoel defence as if it was the Red Sea, and Martin finished off the move in the left corner for another unconverted try.

Narberth's 17-point lead at the interval was reduced in the first minute of the second half when replacement lock Mathew Richards picked up the ball for the visitors from a scrum near the right corner and forced his way over for an unconverted try.

Within minutes, the Otters came back with another try by Tom Bonnell after a great run by Dan Smith, who threw a dummy before releasing Steve Martin, who in turn fed Bonnell to cross for an unconverted try in the right corner.

Centre Richard Davies went over in the left corner shortly afterwards to finish off a move started by Steve Martin and Aled Davies was on target with the conversion kick from the touchline.

The try-scoring spree was concluded when winger Nick Jones touched down under the posts to finish off a move involving Aled Davies and Tom Bonnell and Aled Davies converted the try.

Commenting after the match, backs' coach Clive James said: "We are very happy with the win and for the two bonus points for the second week on the trot, which is something we did not achieve last season.

"As coaches, we were also happy with the intensity produced by the players in a 15-man game which is the way we like to play.

"We were not totally happy with the performance up front as it was a bit disjointed at times, but some fine individual performances by the back three of Steve Martin, Tom Bonnell and Nick Jones combined with our play out wide, enabled us to get on top.

"Once again flanker Andrew Dennis was outstanding and produced the continuity between the backs and the forwards. He seems to pop up everywhere.

"Centre Richard Davies was solid in midfield, number eight Jim Kaumahotoya was excellent for the first 60 minutes and hooker Dan Smith also played well.

"By blooding two teenagers up front in the second half we were looking at the development side of things as well.

"A lot of the first team squad members impressed when playing for the Athletic team in the Carmarthen Tyre Services win away to Waunarlwydd and we have plenty of competition for first team places. In fact, the intensity shown by the players in training is bearing fruit on Saturdays.

"For Felinfoel, it was their first game in Division One West, but they will pose a threat to a number of teams before the season is over.

"It was good to see Siôn Brace back in action when he came on as a second half replacement at fullback.

"Next Saturday at Carmarthen it will be a different game, but we are looking forward to rising to the challenge of playing Carmarthen Quins.

"We know that we will not be able to run tries in from everywhere, so we must take every chance and half chance on offer."

On a day when all of the backs played well, scrum-half Adrian Killa was nominated as man-of-the-match by the match sponsors.

Turnstyle Sports Bar, of Llanelli, acted as the Folly Farm Balcony Suite match sponsor and the Otters Holt match sponsor was Ben's Big Bender.

The match ball sponsors were Owen Phillips, of Llanddewi Velfrey, and the Narberth Former Players Association.

Tomorrow (Saturday), Narberth will be away to a strong Carmarthen Quins team.

Narberth fielded: Steve Martin, Tom Bonnell, Richard Davies, Neil Davies (Siôn Brace), Nick Jones, Aled Davies, Adrian Killa (Andrew Davies), Ryan Perrott (Tom Slater), Dan Smith (Gareth Flynn), Justin Hughes, capt., Chris James, Jason Jennings, Gareth Bateman (Luke Kendall), Andrew Dennis and Jim Kaumahotoya.