After three successive wins in the opening three games of this year's National League division two season, the bubble burst for Narberth at the Lewis Lloyd ground on Saturday as they went down to visiting Llantrisant by 24 points to 19.

A fairly even-handed first half saw the Otters change around with a narrow advantage, stand-off Scott Penney outscoring Black Army scrum-half John Alford by three penalties to two.

Alford had opened the scoring 15 minutes in, then Penney levelled matters with a good effort from long range.

Another long range place kick from Penney gave the homesters the lead.

Left-footer Alford and Penney grabbed another penalty apiece to make it 9-6 in the Otters' favour at the break, although Penney was surprisingly off target with perhaps his easiest kick of the game just before the interval.

The Llantrisant pack started to gain the upper hand in both the loose and the set-pieces in the second half, giving their free-running backs plenty of opportunity to attack the Otters' line.

Centre David Atkins grabbed the lead for the Black Army when the threequarters combined to split the Narberth defence and he breezed through to touch down.

Alford was off target with the conversion.

Narberth hit back when fullback Ifan Jones joined the line at pace to find a chink in the Llantrisant armour from a lineout and fed Penney who looped around to score.

Penney converted his own try to give the Otters the advantage, but the lead was short-lived, with Alford levelling matters with a penalty, before the Black Army scrum-half capped a fine individual performance with an excellent solo try.

Losing possession at the breakdown of an attack, Narberth found themselves back-pedalling into their own territory.

Llantrisant wrestled possession at the resultant maul to send Alford scurrying over to touch down, although the number nine was unable to improve the score when he fired his conversion wide.

Another Penney penalty kept the Otters in the running, but - despite the best efforts of back row trio Simon Davies, Alan Reynolds and John Bowen - limited possession in the loose starved Narberth's free-running backs of the ball and the homesters were unable to capitalise on a number of half-chances.

Alford was unsuccessful with a penalty and stand-off Kevin Jenkins skewed a drop goal attempt, before Alford finally settled matters with another well-struck penalty.

The match was sponsored by Gerald D. Harries and Son Hauliers and Loory Hire, of Narberth, and the match ball was sponsored by Golden Vale Dairies, of Bridgend, and Kevin Morgan Design and Building Management Limited, of Narberth.

Tomorrow (Saturday), the Otters are away to Ystradgynlais.