LEAGUE leaders Narberth travelled to Newcastle Emlyn knowing that only a win would be good enough to keep them at the top of the Admiral National Championship (West) Division.

Conditions were difficult with a strong wind blowing across the pitch.

The Otters started well and almost from the kick off a flowing move along the back line saw wing Josh Evans cross in the corner for a try converted by fly half Jonathan Rogers (0-7).

Shortly afterwards, from a scrum close to the Emlyn line centre Ilan Phillips hit a great angled run and scored under the posts for a try converted by Rogers (0-14).

Immediately after the restart a scrum on the half way line saw scrum half Lewys Gibby cut through the Emlyn defence and score under the posts for a further try converted by Rogers (0-21).

Guto Davies runs at Newcastle Emlyn
Guto Davies runs at Newcastle Emlyn (Pic supplied)

Emlyn eventually settled into the game and put Narberth under pressure close to their own line but solid defence by the Otters kept them out.

However, Narberth scored again when a catch and drive at a lineout saw flanker Guto Davies dive over the line for an unconverted try (0-26).

Then from a quick tap penalty taken by Gibby close to the Emlyn line centre Hedd Nicholas saw a gap and raced through under the posts for the fifth try again converted by Rogers (0-33).

The Otters were now in total command and the ball was being moved wide at every opportunity.

Dean James raced down the left wing beating two defenders and then slipped the ball inside to supporting full back Ashley Sutton who ran in under the posts for a try converted by Rogers (0-40).

Just before half time, after several driving runs from the forwards the ball was once again released to the backs and centre Phillips scored his second try converted by Rogers to make it 47-0 at half time after a commanding first half performance.

To their credit, Newcastle Emlyn put up a much better performance in the second half and came close to scoring on several occasions.

However the Otters scored further tries through centre Nicholas converted by Rogers, wing Dean James and finally Ashley Sutton converted by Rogers and in amongst these the home team scored one consolation converted try to bring the final score to 7-66 in favour of the Otters.

Wing Dean James was the coaches choice of Man of the Match and next week the Otters have another away fixture against Maesteg Quins which they must win as Brecon RFC are breathing down their necks in 2nd place and four points behind.

Brecon beat Ammanford 32-17 on Saturday to keep the pressure on the Otters.