Despite wining the greater share of territory and possession, the young Otters managed to narrowly lose their Griffiths Cup first round game away to Cardigan on Saturday by gifting their opponents two simple tries from basic errors. The home side kicked off with a strong wind and the slope in their favour, but Narberth played skilfully to withstand the pressure and take play into their opponents' half on a number of occasions. With the pack picking and driving forcefully and the backs spreading the ball at every opportunity, Narberth were playing the better rugby and were very unlucky to go seven points behind when a pass was intercepted by the speedy Cardigan inside centre, Aled Jones. This setback was quickly shrugged off as the young Otters, with their lighter pack gaining the upper hand in the scrums, continued to play attractive rugby into the strong wind. A dropped pass in a promising attacking move, however, unbelievably gifted Cardigan another try as it was hacked on by Aled Jones, who won the race for the touchdown. Narberth immediately went onto the offensive from the restart and, following another powerful run from number eight Richard Sharpe-Williams, quick ball from a ruck enabled centre Tom Cummins to cut through to score under the posts. Hopes were high for Narberth as they kicked off for the second-half with the wind at their backs but, despite totally dominating territorially, they failed to breach a strong Cardigan defence. At the final whistle of a game, well-refereed by Eirian Edwards, it was difficult to work out how Narberth lost, having being dominant for so much of the time. Narberth Youth coach, John Chinn, said: "This was a very encouraging performance in which every player showed tremendous commitment. A couple of careless mistakes cost us a game we should have won, but this was another important step forward in the development of a strong youth squad at Narberth. We are still missing a few players through injury, but we hope we shall soon be able to field a full strength side for the first time this season." Narberth squad: Gethin Salter, Mike Nicholas, Rory Bennett, Tom Cummins, Dan Jenkins, Sam Macnaghton, Tom Parsells, Dan Adams, Paul Brown, Gareth Jones, Johnny Manns, Aled John, Simon Griffiths, Richard Sharpe-Williams, Rion Whatmore, Matt Done, Tom Richards and Gareth Beynon.
