Tata Steel 14 pts. Narberth 24

An excellent team performance, particularly by the Narberth pack, gave the Otters a rare away win at the Sports Ground in Margam.

The pack provided the ball, the backs strutted their stuff, scoring opportunities were seized and the place kicking was accurate, although the kicking out of hand was somewhat indifferent.

The first score came after just three minutes from a scintillating move initiated by wing Nick Gale, with a defence-splitting break.

The ball was taken on by his colleagues in the backs. Despite a piece of mishandling, skipper Steve Martin grasped the ball in the air and raced over for a try near the posts, converted by fly-half Ianto Griffiths.

Three minutes later, the Narberth lead had been extended to 10 points when Nick Gale converted a gigantic penalty kick from 10 metres inside the Narberth half.

Steel came back with a penalty from fly-half Steve Lewis after 15 minutes.

After Nick Gale just missed out on another mammoth penalty attempt, the Otters were unable to press home their ball advantage and were reduced to 14 players when number eight Lewis Wood received a yellow card, with five minutes of the first half remaining.

Strangely, renowned place kicker Steve Lewis was off target from the resultant close range penalty attempt which resulted from the yellow card and the Otters led by seven points at the interval.

Just before the whistle, Narberth had been awarded a penalty from a straightforward kicking position, but in view of the dominance of the pack, opted for a scrum. Unfortunately, the move broke down and the three points were forfeited.

Steel came back strongly in the second half and had taken the lead after just seven minutes following an unconverted try by wing Gareth John and a penalty from Steve Lewis.

Two minutes later, Narberth's ascendancy was restored with a spectacular solo try from Jonathan Morgan, who had moved from fullback to scrum-half in place of the injured Rhys Lane.

He intercepted the ball well inside the Narberth half and evaded the clutches of the chasing defenders as he used his pace to cross for a superb try, converted by Ianto Griffiths.

Midway through the second half Steel reduced the lead to three points when Steve Lewis converted a penalty, but the somewhat makeshift Narberth team had the last word with the award of a penalty try two minutes before the final whistle, converted by Ianto Griffiths, to clinch an excellent away win.

With the last move of the day, Steel broke away and looked certain to score a try to claim a bonus point, but replacement fullback Ashley Sutton made a try-saving tackle from behind to prevent the score.

Commenting after the match, Narberth backs coach Roger Davies said: "To come away from an away match at Tata Steel with a win was an excellent result. It is a tough place to come and as coaches we are very pleased with the way it turned out for us.

"During the week a number of players pulled out through illness or injury, so we had to rally around to seek replacements.

"The boys who came in played very well and slotted in to make it a top class team performance.

"Our pack played well as a unit, with the scrums being outstanding. Really we took them apart in the scrums and it is then much easier for the backs to play, when the pack is going forward.

"The penalty try towards the end came from a scrum and our dominance up front was the reason why we won the game.

"A number of replacements came on in the second half and following an injury to Rhys Lane, Jonathan Morgan had to move up to play at scrum-half, with Ashley Sutton coming on to play at fullback.

"He was one of the four replacements who came on and they all slotted in like a glove."

Next Saturday the Otters will be away again, this time to Bridgend, in what will be another testing fixture.

Narberth fielded: Jonathan Morgan, Nick Gale, Jason Howells (Morgan Griffiths), Steve Martin (C), Rhys Davies, Ianto Griffiths, Rhys Lane (Ashley Sutton), Nathan Williams, Dan Smith, Tom Slater (Steffan Jones), Steffan Phillips, Alex Jenkins, Timoci Kaumaitotoya, Wayne Williams (Richard Rees) and Lewis Wood.