Following recent good performances, Narberth Youth struggled against a robust and determined Fishguard playing on their home ground on Friday evening. From the outset it was clear that both teams were evenly matched up front, while Narberth demonstrated more creativity in the backs. With a quarter of the game gone, the visitors began to look threatening as they put together some promising moves, but, against the run of play, Fishguard's pacey number 12 gathered a loose ball on the halfway line and sprinted through some poor tackling to score under the posts. This lifted the home side's confidence and Narberth found it difficult to get out of their own half until fly-half Rhodri James kicked to the top left-hand corner for winger Paul Beddis to chase and pressurise the home fullback. From the ensuing maul, powerful flanker Simon Griffiths forced his way over for a converted try. Narberth struck again immediately from the restart when their number eight Richard Sharpe-Williams, who had an excellent all-round game, broke away from a maul on his own 22 and handed off a couple of tacklers as he sprinted all the way to the try line. Shortly into the second half Narberth were dealt a blow when influential centre Rory Bennett had to leave the field with an injured shoulder to be replaced by flanker Rion Whatmore, who acquitted himself well in this unfamiliar position. After applying early pressure, in which prop Gareth Jones and flanker Stephen Jones were prominent, Narberth gained a further three points from a penalty. With a 12-point lead, they allowed Fishguard back into the game and found themselves defending their line for a long period before working their way up-field. A promising move broke down with a dropped pass that was hacked on by the Fishguard centre, who won the race for the touchdown. The home side then deservedly came to within two points of Narberth when they kicked a penalty. Despite losing busy hooker Paul Brown and winger James Wilson with injuries towards the end of the game, Narberth raised their efforts and made a series of drives for the Fishguard line before scrum-half Tom Parsells spun the ball out to Rhodri James, who dropped a goal to give them a five- point cushion with minutes to go. Fishguard made one last effort, but were kept out by some determined defending, before the referee blew the final whistle. Although Narberth had a number of their first choice players missing through injury and work commitments, this game provided an opportunity for other members of the squad to demonstrate what they could do in pulling off a narrow but deserved win against stern opposition. Tomorrow (Saturday), Narberth Youth entertain a strong Cardigan side at home, with a 2.30 kick-off. Narberth: Andrew Lawrence, James Wilson, Rory Bennett, Nick Jones, Paul Beddis, Rhodri James, Tom Parsells, Dan Adams, Paul Brown, Gareth Jones, Aled John, Ben Jenkins, Simon Griffiths, Richard Sharpe-Williams, Stephen Jones, Rion Whatmore, Jordan Aspinall, Dan Jenkins and Tom Richards.
