Narberth 6 pts. Newbridge 5

In a tense match, where all of the points came in the last 10 minutes, a dramatic last minute long distance penalty kick from the halfway line by replacement wing Nick Gale, gave Narberth the narrowest of wins, by just one point.

Gale's kick kept the Otters in second place in the Championship table, 12 points behind runaway leaders Ebbw Vale and three points above both RGC 1404 and Bargoed.

These days, a nil-nil score at the interval is a rare occurrence, but with a strong wind approaching gale force running straight down the pitch from the cricket field, it defied belief. No one involved as a player, official, coach or supporter would have predicted a pointless first half and certainly would not have even guessed that the first points of the game would be scored after 77 minutes of the match!

Both teams appeared to prefer playing against the wind rather than with the wind at their backs.

When the match started, the Narberth team management and players would have been reasonably satisfied to be facing a deficit of 10 or even 15 points at the interval.

As it happened, no points were scored, with the Otters not only defending very well, but also making regular forays inside the Bridge half.

Scrum-half Adrian Killa came the closest to scoring from a Narberth counter-attack, when he chased after a chip he kicked over the top, but just lost out on the touchdown as a Bridge defender grounded the ball safely.

On a frustrating and difficult afternoon for place kickers, Newbridge missed out on three penalty opportunities in the first half, one of which hit the posts after 11 minutes.

In the second half, although the Otters had more attacking positions, they found that the Bridge defence was equally as well organised as the Narberth defence before the interval and it was not until fly-half Ianto Griffiths kicked a short range penalty goal after 77 minutes that Narberth took the lead.

After four minutes of injury time, Newbridge wing Lewis Hudd broke clear to score an unconverted try in the right corner and it looked as if it had clinched a win for the Bridge.

When the Otters were awarded a penalty kick with the last kick or play of the match, Nick Gale stepped up to take the kick from the halfway line.

He took it coolly and calmly with his precision left foot and gave the Otters a last gasp win with the most difficult kick of the match in a quite remarkable game.

Commenting after the match, Otters' director of rugby, Jonathan Dodd, said: "After a very good performance in the first half I thought that we were in with a chance of securing a handsome win, with the wind at our backs in the second half.

"We kept the score at nil-nil at half-time playing against the wind and defensively we were superb. Our set-piece work was also very good.

"Unfortunately, the players found that the wind was so strong in the second half that it became a disadvantage as the boys could not pass the ball properly.

"Also Newbridge came back very well in the last 20 minutes, they defended excellently and we could not crack them, even though we had a few scrums on their line.

"As coaches we are proud of the achievements of the players and in the last few games we have beaten a number of big name sides who were in the former Merit Table.

"As a small village club from Pembrokeshire we are doing very well and hopefully we will continue to do so.

"We were a little bit lucky, but we are in the right place."

Folly Farm Otters Holt match sponsors, the Templeton Supporters, chose flanker Dylan Richards as man of the match and there were also good performances by his back row colleagues, Stuart Worrall and Steffan Phillips.

The whole pack was particularly positive in the scrums and, although it was not a game for the backs, wing Jason Howells carried well against the wind in the first half.

The Health Centre Balcony Suite match sponsors were the Friends of Narberth RFC and the match ball sponsors were Tenby Male Voice Choir and the Landshipping Boys.

Narberth fielded: Jonathan Morgan, Tomi Jones, Steve Martin, capt (James Griffiths), Morgan Griffiths, Jason Howells, Ianto Griffiths, Adrian Killa (Rhys Lane), Owen Jordan (Sean Lloyd), Dan Smith, Simon Gardiner (Tom Slater), Tom Bannister, Alex Jenkins, Dylan Richards, Stuart Worrall (Nick Gale) and Steffan Phillips.