Narberth 46 pts. Barry 0

As anticipated, Division One Narberth moved through into the fourth round of the Konica Minolta Welsh Cup at the expense of Division Three South East Barry. However, the visitors came close to scoring on a number of occasions, especially during the second half, but the Narberth defence held firm. Prior to the start of the match there was a minute's silence in memory of Richard John, of Templeton, a former player who had died prematurely two weeks previously and also in memory of Mrs. Olive Ebsworth, the mother of second row David Ebsworth, following her death a couple of days before the cup match. The Otters went ahead after six minutes. A clean pick-up by number eight Jamie Bohata from a scrum enabled scrum-half Adrian Killa to make a half-break to create space for fullback Sion Brace, who raced into the line to score. The try was converted by outside-half Rob Irving. Dan Shooter increased the lead with a well-taken try in the right corner, but Rob Irving was unable to convert from the touchline. Within minutes, Irving had made amends with a short-range penalty and then he converted a try by flanker Anthony Griffiths, who touched down when the Otters started a rolling maul from a scrum. In the first minute of injury time, centre Phil Thomas finished off a great handling movement after play had moved from one side of the field to the other. He touched down in the right corner for an unconverted try. Having lost Jamie Bohata to injury towards the end of the first half, another key player, scrum-half Adrian Killa, left the field at the start of the second half after suffering a deep gash on his face, which later required hospital treatment. Winger Mark Davies is always hungry for action and he chased up a kick from Rob Irving to outpace the covering defence and increased the lead with a try converted by Irving. The Otters were guilty of taking their foot off the gas during the second half and also made a number of substitutions to bring on all of the substitutes. The visitors tried desperately to score at least one try, but the Otters' defence remained rigid and Barry were unable to score, despite spending considerable periods outside their own half. The result was never in doubt, but Rob Irving completed the scoring with two tries. The first came from a scrum when he broke through the Barry defence to touchdown for a try under the posts, which he converted. The second came in the 10th minute of injury time from a breakaway movement when Irving removed the shackles which Barry were beginning to impose with an unconverted try. Narberth were reduced to 14 players and at one stage 13 players in the closing stages, with substitute number eight Lewis Wood and flanker Jack Mason both picking up yellow cards. The Narberth pack went well at times, with the backs showing glimpses of good play. Outside-half Rob Irving, having played most of this season in the back three, did extremely well in the pivotal position. With the speedy Mathew Davies also capable of playing in the back three, it gives senior coach John Dodd a number of options at number 10 for different matches, or even during the same match, depending on the state of play. Jason Jennings and skipper Emori Katalau played well in the second row, the Narberth front row held the upper hand and the new-look back row also performed well. Sion Brace had a good all-round game at fullback, Neil Davies exercised the right options at centre on his return from rugby league action and Mark Davies was a livewire on the wing. Speaking after the match, senior coach Jon Dodd said: "We played very well for the first 25 minutes and it was good to see the return to league action of Jason Jennings and Emori Katalau in the second row. "Because of the Welsh rugby international matches and with the postponement of our league match against Cwmllynfell it was nice generally to see everyone back in action as we have only played one game in the month. "We made the mistake of relaxing a little after taking a comfortable lead and failed to kill off the Barry team. "To their credit, Barry were well organised in defence and we had to work very hard to get around and score. "In the second half, Barry were camped inside our half for long periods. We had the game well won by then and we also made a number of changes, as because of the lack of rugby in recent weeks, it was important for all of the substitutes to get on the field. "We have three hard league matches before Christmas, against Beddau, Whitland and Bonymaen, and we must build on our performance today and work very hard in training sessions to prepare for these stiff encounters." Team manager Robert Lewis added: "One of our aims is to go as far as we can in the cup this season and it was good to get the result. Barry gave us a tough game today and competed right to the end with some of their players putting in good performances. From the Narberth point of view we ran in some excellent tries and we are looking forward to the draw, keeping our fingers crossed for a crowd- pulling fixture at home in the next round. "We made a number of handling errors in the somewhat sticky conditions and we must work on these mistakes prior to our league game next Saturday (tomorrow) at home to Beddau. The scrums and lineout work was good and we were able to take a number of positives out of the game with the manner in which we scored the tries." The sponsors nominated outside-half Rob Irving as the man-of-the-match. The Folly Farm Balcony Suite match sponsors were Alexander Partnership, Chartered Accountants, of Tenby, together with Hains and Lewis, Solicitors of Narberth. The Otters Holt match sponsors were Chris, Midge, Pip, Nev and Rhodri, of Narberth. The match ball sponsors were Gary Richards and Neil Jolly. Narberth fielded: Sion Brace (Mathew Davies), Dan Shooter, Phil Thomas (Mike Georgiou) Neil Davies, Mark Davies, Rob Irving, Adrian Killa (Andrew Davies), Jamie Parr, Kevin Davies (Simon Delaney), Alan Phillips, Emori Katalau (capt.), Jason Jennings, Anthony Griffiths (Adrian Chiffi), Jack Mason and Jamie Bohata (Lewis Wood).

Whitland's cup match postponed

Whitland's home fixture with Bridgend Athletic in the third round of the Konica Minolta Welsh Cup was postponed last Saturday because the Parc Ty Llwyn Gwyn ground was too wet. Instead, it will be played tomorrow (Saturday), with their scheduled league match postponed to a later date.