Swansea 27 pts. Narberth 20

Lying second in the Championship table, Swansea at St. Helens were always going to be a stern test for the Otters.

With a firm playing surface, the pitch at St, Helens seems wider than many and, as the players came on to it at the start, Swansea appeared to have a much beefier pack.

However, the performance by the Otters’ pack was outstanding, particularly in the first half, and after half-an-hour, the visiting supporters could hardly believe that their team were 20 points to nil in the lead. The supporters began to wonder if a major upset was on the cards.

The Otters took the lead after just five minutes when the All Whites were penalised for a scrum offence and Nick Gale was off the mark with a fine kick at goal.

And they soon followed this with a swift moving attack, which eventually saw Gale add another three points as he banged over a second penalty from 40 metres.

Swansea were stung into action and began to pressurise the Otters, but there was a real determination by the visitors to defend resolutely.

Unfortunately, during this period, centre Steve Martin received a very painful chest injury, resulting a visit to hospital. He was replaced by Pat Roberts.

Having survived the onslaught with their line intact, the Otters began to exert some pressure themselves, with fly-half James Stephenson pinning the All Whites in their own half with some fine touchline kicks.

Then, on 25 minutes, Narberth silenced the Swansea supporters with an excellent try. From midfield, Rhys Lane released the ball to Pat Roberts, who made ground before passing on to Nick Gale. He had 25 metres to go the line, but deceived the defenders with some deft dummies and weaving running to race over and score the try, which he had no problem in converting.

On receiving the subsequent kick-out, James Stephenson attempted to add to the score with an attempted drop goal, but was off target.

But it was not long before Rhys Lane put the Otters further ahead. The ball was initially gathered by Pat Roberts, who sprinted diagonally towards the touchline, before passing back inside to Lane, who scampered through a huge gap in the Swansea backline to touch down and for Nick Gale to convert.

Narberth were now 20 points to nil ahead and their supporters began to feel that Lady Luck was smiling on them, as they were now controlling the game, pinning the All Whites in their own half.

Then, on 40 minutes, a collapsed scrum on the halfway line was adjudged to be caused by Narberth. The Swansea fly-half kicked the penalty to the Otters’ five-metre line, where the All Whites took clean ball at the lineout and set up a rolling maul. The Otters initially repelled this, but suddenly the ball appeared on the blindside and number eight Rory Gallacher picked up and forced his way over for an unconverted try, after which the referee blew for half-time.

Clearly the Otters had been equal to the efforts of the All Whites and it seemed unfortunate that, against the run of play, they should reduce the deficit with the late try.

And it was not long before the gap was closed further as, two minutes into the second half, Swansea were awarded a penalty, which Jack Wilson slotted over to add three points to their total.

Then, after five minutes, the second half came alive when Swansea suddenly got the upper hand in the front row battle, where previously it had been even, with neither pack really getting the upper hand in the scrums. This resulted in a substitution, bringing the experienced Dan Jacobs into the front row for the Otters.

Controversy occurred after 46 minutes when Swansea declared a need for uncontested scrums. It was a strange decision when on their subs bench was Justin Hughes, probably the most experienced front row technician still in the game. His rugby record says it all, having captained Caerphilly in their hey day, Aberavon and Llanelly, including a Wales B cap, as well as many games for the Otters, including being captain. Narberth head coach Sean Gale was not a happy man at this odd decision.

A minute later, with the Narberth pack still packing down, Swansea were able to release quick ball and, using their speedy threequarters, Liam Popham tore through to score a try, which was converted by Jack Wilson.

A few minutes later, Nick Gale attempted a huge 50-metre kick which failed to reach its target, the wind seeming to defeat the effort. Lady Luck had gone away.

On 55 minutes, Swansea brought on Justin Hughes.

The Otters were then awarded a penalty and chose to kick to the five-metre line. At the subsequent lineout, Alex Jenkins jumped high to obtain possession and a rolling maul formed. Near the line they released the ball to Rhys Lane, who on changing direction, slipped and the scoring chance was lost.

On 63 minutes, the All Whites took the lead. There had been a protracted kicking duel and eventually Swansea, moving forward, created a gap in the Otters’ defence for fly-half Jack Wilson to make an angled break which took him clear of the defence to score under the posts. He also added the conversion to take the score to 22-20.

Narberth were awarded another penalty two minutes later and yet another monster kick by Nick Gale fell just short of the posts.

On 70 minutes, Rory Gallacher scored his second and unconverted try, taking the score to 27-20.

Narberth replaced hooker Marc James with the experienced Dan Smith. There followed another kicking duel. Then, right at the end of the game, following a long kick by Nick Gale, the Otters again pressed the Swansea defence and nearly broke through at five metres, only for the ball to end up in touch and the referee to blow for full-time.

This was a game the Otters should not have lost. They had fought tremendously hard to contain the All Whites, which they did particularly well in the first half. Unfortunately, once they had taken the lead, a few heads went down unnecessarily.

The Otters’ pack was superb and never flinched as the heavy All Whites pack tried to force their way through.

Nick Gale scored 15 points and was unfortunate that the elements were against him in the second half. Llyr Morris was man of the match.

Afterwards, the Narberth director of coaching commented how pleased he was with the performance, particularly in the first half, although a few tackles fell off a bit in the second half which caused a few problems.

“We were happy to get a bonus point, but it could have been a win,” he added. “We suffered for going flat in the middle part of the game, but we finished strongly. We ended the game well and need to kick on from here. To gain bonus points against Swansea was more than some people had expected, but the performance merited more.”

Narberth fielded: Johnny Morgan, Liam Hutchins, Steve Martin (Jordan Roberts), Ollie Reyland, Nick Gale, James Stephenson, Rhys Lane, Ollie Evans, Marc James (Dan Smith), Jamie Kaijaks, Lyndon Bateman, Alex Jenkins, Pat Roberts, Llyr Morris, Lewis Wood. Subs - Ianto Griffiths, Calumn Tree.