Bonymaen 20 pts. Narberth 14

With skipper and prop Justin Hughes having to leave the field just before the interval after receiving a message that his wife had gone into labour and the other prop Sean Lloyd being red-carded in the second half, the Otters were forced to play uncontested scrums.

Consequently they were unable to use their superior scrummaging power for the last 24 minutes of the game to claw their way back into it after Bonymaen had built up a 17-5 lead in the first minute of the second half.

The Parc Mawr ground is at a high altitude and open to the elements on three sides, with no stand alongside the clubhouse on the protected side. Supporters of both teams were glad to wear anything warm which offered protection against the very cold temperatures.

The Otters took an early lead when centre Steve Martin went over for an unconverted try, but Bonymaen led 10-5 at the break following a penalty by outside-half Ian Brooks, together with a try from lock Richard Jones, who broke clear from a lineout for a try converted by Brooks.

Both teams crossed the line in the first half for 'tries', only to have them disallowed.

Maen's narrow 10-5 lead at the break was increased in the first minute of the second half with a clever move started by Ian Brooks.

Seeing that the path to the line through a handling movement would be blocked, Brooks chipped a perfectly weighted ball for winger Richard Williams to catch in the air before it bounced, to race unopposed towards the right corner, where he touched down for a try which Brooks converted.

Two successive penalties by outside-half Aled Davies kept the visitors in touch, but Ian Brooks kept the scoreboard moving Maen's way when he was on target with a penalty. Unfortunately, Aled Davies missed out on a penalty chance from 25 metres which would have narrowed the gap and after 16 minutes the Otters received a body blow when Sean Lloyd left the field after seeing red.

With replacement prop Tom Slater already on the field, there was no other player available to prop, so that there were uncontested scrums for the rest of the game.

A penalty by Aled Davies gave the visitors a glimmer of hope when Maen lock Richard Thomas was yellow-carded, but Narberth were unable to take advantage of being level in numbers when he was off the field.

The disparity in numbers was restored when Thomas returned to the fray and the Otters played the closing stages of the match with just 13 players when centre Richard Davies picked up a yellow card.

Commenting immediately after the match, Otters director of rugby Jonathan Dodd said: "Bonymaen played a lot of rugby in a game which could have gone either way, although we are obviously disappointed that we lost.

"The sending off and the yellow card clearly had a bearing on the result, but in all fairness we were just glad to be back playing rugby again.

"It was difficult to get any consistency in the various phases of play because there were a lot of mistakes from both sides. Bonymaen scored good tries and did what that had to do to against us to win the match.

"There were some good individual performances as scrum-half Adrian Killa, flanker Wayne Williams and second row Chris Scarf all played well."

Narberth fielded: Roger Davies, Tom Bonnell, Richard Davies, Steve Martin, Mark Heywood, Aled Davies, Adrian Killa, Sean Lloyd, Dan Smith, Justin Hughes (capt), Chris Scarf, Alex Jenkins, Gareth Bateman, Wayne Williams and Lewis Wood. Replacements - Tom Slater, Chris James, Lee Glanville and Simon Griffiths.

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