Llandovery 82 pts. NarbertH 11

Quite a number of Narberth supporters travelled to the Church Bank home of Llandovery RFC (the Drovers) for this Swalec Cup secon round clash on Saturday.

Whilst well received by the home club, the Otters supporters, having seen Swansea beaten at Narberth, arrived with hopes of a good contest and a possible success. It was not to be.

The Otters took the field with several of the normal squad missing due to a variety of reasons. Church Bank is a fine home for the Drovers and is quite a wide pitch, which was a challenge for Narberth's kickers. The pitch had suffered the toll of the weekend storms and proved heavy.

The severe gale force winds had subdued somewhat when the tie commenced. Both teams were tentative in the initial moments of the game, but it was Narberth who scored first, via a penalty kick by fly-half Ianto Griffiths.

On 13 minutes, Narberth fullback Johnny Morgan fielded a high kick and kicked back into the Drovers' half, only for wing Richard Williams to collect and successfully weave his way through the Otters' defence at speed to touch down for the first of his three tries.

The Drovers scored two further tries by centre Mathew Jacobs and scrum-half Lee Rees, before Ianto Griffiths kicked a penalty and back row man Gareth Bateman scored a try after pressure on the Llandovery line by the Narberth pack.

Further tries by wing Richard Williams and Lee Rees and Drovers' hooker Luke Lewis, with four conversions by fly-half James Garland, provided a half-time score of 40-11.

In the second half, Narberth kept Llandovery tied down for 16 minutes, during which time Nick Gale made a break from his half, getting close to the line, only to be pulled down by the chasing opposition.

Frequently the Otters' attacks broke down, with the consequence of Llandovery gaining the ball and attacking the subsequent gaps in the defence.

For Llandovery, the game eventually turned into a try-fest, scoring 12 in all against Narberth's single try and two penalties. A feature for Llandovery was the speed of their threequarters, with scrum-half Lee Rees proving to be a real jack in the box with his quick-thinking darts and general play.

Narberth, with a weakened team, welcomed back veteran Nick Jones, playing on the wing, who had retired two seasons ago. The Otters also badly missed their team captain, Steve Martin, at centre. Also missing were Nathan Williams, Sean Lloyd, Adam Clarke, Lewis Wood, Tomi Jones and Nio Aiona.

The Narberth pack stuck to their task throughout and through several phases managed to get close to the Drovers' line, but an infringement led to Llandovery regaining the ball and breaking out to expose the Otters' defensive weaknesses .with missed tackles galore.

The pack lacked their usual overpowering strong platform in the scrums, but held the set-pieces. However, all their efforts were undone by the inability of the threes to break the Llandovery defence, often ending in a ruck or dropped pass. Llandovery were quick to take advantage of any loose ball, moving it speedily to the wings and taking advantage of any gap in the visitors' defence.

The final score of 82-11 came from Llandovery scoring six tries in each half, their second half scorers being Richard Williams with his third try, James Garland, Craig Woodall, Sam Soul, Aaron Warren and Richard Brooks. The tries were converted by fly-half James Garland.

Later, Narberth head coach Jon Dodd stated that it had been a nightmare of a week trying to piece together a squad due to the number of regular squad members being unavailable through illness, injury and suspension. Also, a few were cup tied. He felt the pack measured up to the task, but the defence was found wanting.

Narberth fielded: Johnny Morgan, Nick Gale (Adam Phillips), Jason Howells, Rees Davies, Nick Jones, Ianto Griffiths, Luke Rogers, Ollie Evans (Steff Jones), Dan Smith, Tom Slater, Steffan Phillips, Alex Jenkins (Tom Bannister), Jim Kaurnaitotoya (Seimon Griffiths), Gareth Bateman (Calum Tree). Sub not used - Rhys Lane.