Narberth 19 pts. Blackwood 13

Blackwood were a hard nut to crack, but the Otters held on to their first half lead with a commanding second half performance to keep their line intact and to clinch the double over Wood, in another closely fought encounter between the two sides.

Conditions were not ideal for open rugby, but the days of 10-man rugby by the Valleys' teams seem to be over at present, so that both teams endeavoured to play attacking rugby, wherever possible.

Naturally, on a cold, windy afternoon and a greasy ball, handling could be something of a lottery, but occasionally some of the passing skills and movements of the Narberth backs was sublime.

The Otters built up a lead of 14 points with two converted tries inside 30 minutes. Flanker Wayne Williams scored the first when he touched down after a powerful, driving maul by the pack in the bottom left corner.

Fly-half Stuart Morris had to pull out all of the stops to convert, but he did and he also converted the second try scored by winger Will Lewis in the right corner.

It came from a splendid passing movement from left to right and a run by winger Tom Bonnell, who came across from the left to create an opening for Lewis to score.

It was not a simple run in, but the young winger Lewis somehow found his way through the cluster of defenders to score the try to finish off a smooth handling movement.

Blackwood bounced back with a penalty scored by fly-half Paul Emanuelly after 35 minutes and in injury time scrum-half Mark Birkby made further inroads into the lead with a spontaneous individual try near the posts, which was converted by Emanuelly.

In the second half, against a strongish wind, Narberth defended well and the pack gradually gained the upper hand.

After 25 minutes, fullback Jonathan Morgan increased the lead when he hacked the ball up field along the left touchline from the halfway line. He continued to control the ball with his feet, before touching down for an unconverted try in the left corner.

Five minutes later, the scoring for the afternoon was completed when Emanuelly picked up his second penalty of the match.

Commenting after the match, Narberth director of rugby Jonathan Dodd said: "We are very pleased with the win, although we did not play as well as we did last week at Newbridge.

"Blackwood are a very competitive side, but on a heavy pitch and in difficult conditions our pack played very well, particularly in the second half.

"Consequently, we were able to take the game away from Blackwood, playing against the wind, with some good hard driving play and the Narberth back row being outstanding.

"Any win in the Championship is a good win, as is any win at this stage of the season when historically we have not played very well at this time of the year.

"Tactically we played the right game in the second half, but we are aware that there are a lot of hard games coming up."

Narberth fielded: Jonathan Morgan, Will Lewis (Jarred Bayliss), Steve Martin (capt.), Richard Davies, Tom Bonnell, Stuart Morris, Rhys Lane, Sean Lloyd, Dan Smith, Steffan Jones (Tom Slater), Gyles Vaughan), Chris James (Alex Jenkins), Lawrence Reynolds (Gareth Bateman), Wayne Williams and Steffan Phillips.