NARBERTH 14 pts.

CARMARTHEN QUINS 50

An exhilarating display of inventive rugby by the high-flying Quins meant that the Otters were virtually out of contention by the break at the Lewis Lloyd ground on Saturday.

Although the homesters geared up in the second half, they could do little to overturn a huge 31-point half-time deficit, eventually losing this National League division one clash by 50 points to 14.

The Quins had obviously done their homework, noting Narberth's reliance on running the ball out of defence, and closed down the options, although the Otters were guilty of adding to the problem by not harnessing the wind to their advantage in the first half.

Locks Paul Arnold and Paul Matthews dominated the linesout to provide platform possession, while back row trio of Stuart Jenkins, Alan Mason and Paul Morgan all helped the Quins put pressure on the gain line.

Behind the pack, the experienced half-back pairing of Steve Wake and Giles Thomas varied their options wisely, bringing their pacy threes into play on angled runs, or kicking for field position, and it was this variety that gave them the edge to overcome some tenacious tackling from the Otters.

Thomas gave the Quins the lead with a penalty, but Narberth were unlucky not to sneak the advantage for themselves when Simon Daniel broke through, but the Otters' pivot fumbled the ball as he crossed the line.

The Quins edged further in front when stand-off Thomas split the Narberth defence to send Arnold over under the posts.

Thomas easily added the extras and was also on target to add the conversion after Joss Freeman picked up the first of his three tries of the afternoon minutes later.

Such was the dominance of the Quins in the first half that, despite the inroads made by skipper Simon Davies and co-centres Elgan Vittle and Andrew Bowen, the Otters were presented with limited scoring opportunities, a rare penalty, uncharacteristically off target by Daniel, being one of these.

Aided by some rather slipshod tackling, Freeman broke through to pick up his second try, again converted by Thomas, before hard-working number eight Mason broke through just before the break to send fullback Barry Thomas over.

Thomas again added the extras to give the visitors a 31-0 lead at the change around.

Narberth's senior coach Keith Eaton must have laid down the law during the oranges, because the Otters looked more convincing in the opening stages of the second half, reducing the deficit to 17 points within a matter of minutes with two superb tries by wing Andrew Jones.

Daniel launched the break out and prop Andrew Howell maintained the momentum before feeding Jones, who completely wrong-footed his opposite number Freeman before cantering over to touch down.

Daniel slotted over the conversion and was on hand to do the same minutes later when Jones again used his pace to pop over in the corner after flanker Matthew Evans and prop Howell combined to break the gain line.

The Otters looked to be in the ascendancy, but suffered a blow to their confidence when, as they rampaged forward, Daniel was unable to take a misdirected pass and the Quins were able to marshall their defence.

The homesters suffered another blow to their morale when Freeman picked up his hat-trick.

Instead of kicking out of defence, Narberth again tried to run the ball, being hemmed in by the alert Quins defence.

As the ball squirted out on the blind side of the resultant scrum, Freeman was alert to hack on and win the race to the touchdown.

Thomas converted and then got in on the try scoring act himself as the Quins got their second wind, although he was unable to convert his own touchdown.

Fullback Thomas rounded off the day's scoring as he joined the line at pace to pick up his second try which he converted himself.

With the season now at the halfway mark, Narberth will be hoping to regain some of their early impetus tomorrow (Saturday) when they travel to Newbridge.