Before this Championship clash at the Lewis Lloyd ground on Saturday, the clubhouse was packed, with every room used.

The match sponsor, DP Building Supplies, brought along a great many customers as well as the Whitland and District Male Voice Choir. Also present were Clynderwen Bois as ball sponsors and in the Players Bar the Former Players Association held its first reunion of the seson, with Brian Harries as guest speaker.

Outside, a warm southerly wind gusting to gale force played a part during the game, especially with the place kicks, and challenged the kickers’ ability to score points.

The Otters, some three weeks ago, played Trebanos in a friendly and so both squads were aware of each other’s style of play. The Otters made a few changes, particularly from the previous week.

The early moments saw both sides testing each other with their high kicks and pick and drive efforts. Trebanos quickly settled into a free-flowing series of attacks which tested the Otters’ defensive system, especially their centre Ewan Gully, who seemed to find gaps with his diagonal breaks.

As errors crept in at the breakdowns, whenever there was a scrum the Otters proved too strong for the Trebanos pack, sending them backwards each time.

The first scoring opportunity for the boot of Nick Gale came after 10 minutes, but the gusting wind proved the winner.

Eight minutes later, however, the Otters did get on the scoreboard. Alex Jenkins outjumped Trebanos on their throw at a lineout and, as the Otters began to press forward, Trebanos attempted to spoil the movement, but only managed to kick the ball back into Narberth hands.

Jonathan Rogers, on gaining the ball, threw out a long pass and the Otters again moved forward with a series of good inter-passing between centres Jake Jenkins, Joe Hutchings and wing Josh Davies, who passed inside to the ever-alert Lewys Gibby.

Accelerating forward, Gibby scored the first try in the far corner. Nick Gale’s conversion kick again was taken away by the wind.

The Otters upped their game, but several moves were spoiled by errors. This allowed Trebanos back into the game. On 28 minutes they were awarded a normalyl kickable penalty, but fly-half Tom Dew’s kick was not strong enough to defeat the wind.

As the game progressed, the Narberth scrum proved too strong and, gaining good possession, Jake Jenkins made an exceptional break which took him to within a few metres of the line, but the move faltered when tackled with several Otters to his left side.

Trebanos managed to force the Otters further left and backwards. The referee awarded a scrum.

However, the Trebanos pack could not cope with the substantial pressure and, after resetting the scrum three times, the referee awarded Narberh a penalty try on 44 minutes taking the score at half-time to 12-0.

The Otters kicked off to start the second half, with the opposition receiving the ball and running it back at them. There was a Narberth knock-on and from the scrum Trenanos quickly heeled and moved via several phases to the north side of the ground, with wing Keiron Weightman sprinting through a few missed tackles to score his try in the far corner.

Again Tom Dew failed to convert the try.

Within two minutes, the Otters increased their lead. Trebanos restarted the game, the Otters gathered and moved forward, but knocked-on resulting in a scrum on the far side. The Otters pushed Trebanos off the ball, Lewys Gibby fed Nick Gale, who raced up the touchline to score far out and then proceeded to convert his try, which brought the score to 19 -5.

Five minutes later, wing Dafydd Pritchard scored an unconverted try, much enjoyed by the watching crowd. It started with the Otters receiving a penalty which Jonathon Rogers kicked into touch inside the Trebanos half.

From a safe take at the lineout, the team moved the ball right with a series of pick and drives, before switching left; then from the ruck Jonathon Rogers threw a long pass out to Nick Gale, who raced forward, making ground to about 10 metres from the try line, before passing to wing Dafydd Pritchard, who, although tackled, managed to down the ball over the try line.

Then on 54 minutes the Otters began to use their bench, with Rhys Lane replacing Lewys Gibby, Bradley Davies replacing Dan Jacobs and Dewi Williams replacing Alex Jenkins.

Five minutes later, Tom Kaijaks was forced to leave the field with a knee injury. Dan Jacobs returned as his front row replacement. Further changes came when Ianto Griffiths replaced Jonathon Rogers and Kyle Hamer replaced Rhodri Owen at hooker on 68 minutes.

Then, when the Otters were moving out of their half with a series of pick and drive movements, the ball fell loose and Trebanos centre Euan Gully picked up and raced in under the posts for a try, converted by fly-half Tom Drew. The score was now 24-12.

Then on 75 minutes, Nick Gale added three points with a well-struck penalty kick.

There was just time remaining for the Otters to score their bonus point try. When Trebanos restarted after the penalty, Gale gathered the high kick and kicked into touch on the halfway line, Trebanos moved the ball from the lineout, but the Otters regained possesion out of the tackle and Rhys Lane fed Ianto Griffiths, who kicked for the corner.

At the lineout, the Otters regained the ball and Ianto Griffiths passed long for open-side flanker Tom Powell to gather and step over the try line, with Nick Gale converting.

The final action was Ianto Griffiths kicking the ball off the field for the referee to blow his whistle for full-time. The crowd left having enjoyed a competitive action-packed game.

Afterwards Narberth attack coach Deiniol Evans commented: “I was happy with the result, I would have taken that before the game. It is always a tough game against Trebanos because they play a lot of unstructured rugby. We did quite well, the set-piece was excellent again, the scrum was dominant, the lineout was very good. We managed to score some nice tries off it. Our defence could have been a bit better. We fell off a few tackles here and there, made a few errors which was disappointing. What is good we are building nicely, week by week.

“Stand out performances came from Steffan Phillips in the lineout, Tom Powell, who was in the game all the time, and Jake Jenkins at inside centre, who made some good lines of running in second half which was good for us. We are scoring some nice tries.

“We dominated the set-piece and ultimately we dominated the game, apart for a few things, So I am very, very happy and the performance builds for next week and for Pontypool here at home in two weeks time.”

The Man of the Match award went to Tom Powell.

Narberth fielded: Nick Gale, Dafydd Pritchard, Joe Hutchings, Jake Jenkins, Josh Davies, Jonathan Rogers (Ianto Griffiths), Lewys Gibby (Rhys Lane), Dan Jacobs (Bradley Davies), Rhodri Owens (Kyle Hamer), Tom Kaijaks, Alex Jenkins, Jake Baker, Richie Rees (Capt), Tom Powell, Steffan Phillips.