Corus 34 pts. Narberth 10

Energised by former Otters favourite Chris MacDonald, Corus put up an excellent all round team performance to earn a comfortable victory against the Otters, but the winning task was made easier following a lacklustre performance by the visitors.

Narberth dominated the line-outs throughout the match, but were often on the back foot in the scrums and the general standard of passing, tackling and kicking was disappointing to players, coaches and supporters alike.

Normally the Otters revel in an open style of game and they tried to play their normal expansive style, but move after move broke down because of poor passing and handling and outside-half Aled Davies was unable to stamp his usual authority on the game because of a leg injury.

The visitors suffered a setback in the first minute when Corus number eight Cameron Davies went over for a try near the posts from a line-out and fullback Rhys Williams added the points for the conversion.

Six minutes later from a scrum near the 22, Corus took advantage of the new rules and in a well-rehearsed training move, former Narberth player Chris MacDonald at scrum-half threw out a long pass and the ball was passed on to winger Scott Robinson to race over for a try near the corner flag which was converted by Rhys Williams.

The Otters had a chance to get on the scoreboard with a penalty attempt by Aled Davies from the 40-metre mark, but the kick was off target.

After 19 minutes, the Otters gave a glimpse of their talents in a broken play move when the ball was switched back to the left for centre Steve Martin to finish off with an unconverted try.

After 33 minutes, Corus opened up the gap when lock Rhydian Geriat finished off a move which started at the line-out with a try near the posts converted by Rhys Williams.

Narberth were awarded a penalty shortly before the interval. Nick Jones took over the kicking duties, but missed out on a chance to put points on the board as the kick from inside the 22 went wide of the posts.

Early in the second half, Narberth supporters at the Sports Ground in Margam had something to cheer when centre Steve Martin left the defence for dead with an excellent run from 40 metres to cross for an unconverted try.

The move had started on the Narberth 22 and scrum-half Adrian Killa showed his rugby vision with a well-judged kick which switched play to the left.

Left wing Craig Barnett ran on to the ball and continued the move before releasing the ball to Steve Martin who had come up inside in support.

Ten minutes later, Rhys Williams was on target again with a penalty kick to extend the Corus lead. After 25 minutes, any hope of a Narberth fightback was put to bed when Chris MacDonald did what he did so often for the Otters by crossing for a try near the right corner from a blind side move following a scrum. Once again Rhys Williams put the conversion attempt between the posts.

Corus outside-half Michael Hook, the brother of Welsh International James Hook, completed a good afternoon for the home team by rounding off the points scoring for the day with a smartly taken drop-goal from 30 metres.

Narberth forwards coach Sean Gale was naturally disappointed with the result and shot from the hip in his post match comments when he said: "It was a hugely disappointing performance and has really set us back. The players and coaches have got to have a really hard look at themselves. If you try hard and lose, I have no problem with that, but we cannot accept a performance like that.

"There were one or two positives. The two young back row forwards, Richard Sharpe-Williams and Luke Kendall showed up well, but were on the back foot all of the time and you cannot expect to play winning rugby off the back foot.

"The line-out functioned well and we took a lot of ball off them, but unfortunately were unable to do anything with it.

"Players need to have more 'want' and a desire to perform well and this display is not what we have come to expect from the Narberth team.

"When we have our video session during training on Monday, we will all need to study the video closely and question how we are going to improve.

"Nevertheless, I'm sure that with the quality of the squad that we have got, we will be able to bounce back and that we will not put in another performance like that today. In fact I can guarantee it!

"Admittedly, we had some players unavailable through injury and in one case a family bereavement, but at the end of the day, there are no excuses and we still had enough quality players on the park to perform.

"In addition, we have been without a match for two weeks and that does make a difference but not enough to prevent us from playing much better than we did today.

"We will have to work hard next week to get back on track before our next home game which is against Carmarthen Athletic."

That game is tomorrow (Saturday).

Narberth fielded: Nick Jones, Tom Bonnell, Steve Martin, Richard Davies, Craig Barnett, Aled Davies (Neil Davies), Adrian Killa (Jonathan Morgan), Brian Perrott, Justin Hughes, Tom Slater (Gareth Flynn), Chris James (Jason Jennings), Alex Jenkins, Luke Kendall, Richard Sharpe-Williams and Jim Kaumahotoya (David Ebsworth).