Narberth 29 pts. Bedlinog 31

It was five weeks ago since the Otters last played. A cancelled game due to ground conditions and the current Six Nations championship being the cause. Despite a week of some bad weather and overnight rain, the pitch was declared fit. This was due to the work of a loyal group of some committee and supporters who tirelessly had spent several hours forking the worst areas on both the main and middle pitches.

Bedlinog arrived having played and won two recent games and who had held the Otters to a 17-all draw at their valley ground and so a potential difficult game was expected. The Lewis Lloyd main pitch becomes heavy in winter and morning showers resulted in greasy conditions.

The Otters were led out onto the field by number 8 Steffan Phillips who played his 100th league game for the Otters five weeks before.

The Otters kicked-off and within three minutes Bedlinog (the Foxes) were penalised at the breakdown enabling Ianto Griffiths to put three points on the board with his penalty kick. As the game developed, with the Otters attempting to increase the lead, Bedlinog defended with some ferocious tackling.

On 17 minutes, the Otters were awarded a penalty again at the breakdown with Ianto Griffiths kicking to the corner. Unfortunately, the Otters throw was too long and a knock on occurred, the referee blew for a scrum to be formed. At the scrum, the Otters were forced into a messy heel, the opposition attempted to clear, but the kick was knocked down and the Otters pack regaining possession forced their way over the line. Unfortunately, the referee decided the ball was held up.

As a result, a five-metre scrum was formed, the Otters this time heeled quickly and attempted to break through the defensive line only to offend at the ruck. Liam Hutchings was a live wire moving off his wing, hungry to attack and at the back both Ianto Griffiths and Nick Gale were attempting to kick behind the Bedlinog defence into the empty spaces forcing their backs to turn to regain the ball.

Unfortunately, the Otters were not able to capitalise on this tactic not following up quick enough enabling Bedlinog to run back at them. On 25 minutes from an Otters lineout, Alex Jenkins provided good ball and as the ball was being spread wide Bedlinog were penalised for lying offside. Ianto Griffiths kicked towards the corner, a Bedlinog mistake led to another Otters lineout and as the ball was moved across field, Keiron Jones made an incisive break feeding Liam Hutchings who was brought down with a high tackle, the ball ending in touch. This time, Keiron Jones again made ground and was tackled and from the ruck the forwards took it forward before flanker Tom Powell fed Bradley Davies. He barged his way over the line for a try converted by Ianto Griffiths.

Then five minutes later, on 35 minutes, from gaining possession the alert scrum half Lewys Gibby made a break and at the subsequent tackle, the ball was rucked to enable Paul Davies to make a diagonal break before releasing Liam Hutchings to race over and score near the corner. Ianto Griffiths converted from a very difficult angle.

Play continued and just on half-time, Bedlinog captain hooker Nathan Huish was yellow carded for rucking with his boot. As a result, Jake Simm had to leave the field injured to be replaced by Ryan Banner.

The referee blew for half-time with the score at 17-0 for the Otters. Looking back on the half, Bedlinog were hitting the breakdowns in numbers and as a result won some of the rucks forcing the Otters off the ball. In Daniel Parry (15) and Josh Rees (10) they had two kickers who worked the touchline.

The Otters initially looked a bit rusty after the long lay off, but were attempting to play an expansive game and were well worth their 17 point lead.

Within one minute of the restart, the Otters went further into the lead. Bedlinog had kicked-off and the ball was fielded by Ianto Griffiths who found touch on the half-way line. The Otters were able to gain possession from the lineout and proceeded up field via several phases with the pack supporting each other well before Ianto Griffiths seeing a gap sprinted through to score a bonus point try which he converted. Bedlinog came back but were forced back by a huge Nick Gale kick upfield.

The next Otters try came on 46 minutes. From a lineout, Lewys Gibby fed centre Paul Davies who made a strong break, on being tackled the Otters rucked and Lewys Gibby made a break towards the Bedlinog line, was brought down and from the ruck flanker Tom Powell dived over for an unconverted try.

With five tries now onboard, supporters could see a big score coming, but on 50 minutes, Bedlinog scored their first try, from a lineout a rolling maul was formed which the Otters failed to hold The Foxes crossed the line and captain Nathan Huish was credited with the unconverted try.

The Otter coaches immediately made changes to the front row, taking off veteran hooker Dan Smith and experienced prop Bradley Davies replacing them with Rhodri Owen and Rhys Davies respectively both still in their late teens. Six minutes later, Bedlinog were awarded a scrum 20 metres out and to the Otter supporters surprise and horror, they witnessed the Otters being driven back and as Bedlinog reached the try line the referee awarded a penalty try. Centre Paul Davies was sent to the sin bin for attempting to hold back the scrum drive. This resulted in reorganisation of the backs, Mauritz Neumann was replaced by James Stephenson, returning from injury, Jonathan Rogers came off the subs bench to play at scrum half and the effective Lewys Gibby moved to the right wing.

The score now 29 -12, Bedlinog played with renewed spirit hitting and winning the breakdowns enabling them to moved down field forcing the Otters to kick to touch. Then from the lineout, Bedlinog set-up a series of rolling mauls before releasing the ball and now within 10 metres of the line fed centre Liam James who managed to spot a gap and race over for a try on 63 minutes which fullback Daniel Parry converted.

On 66 minutes, Paul Davies returned and James Stephenson moved to the fullback with Nick Gale moving to wing left wing as Liam Hutchings had to withdraw through injury. The Otters managed to keep Bedlinog at bay before again coming under the cosh.

On 71 minutes, winning their lineout, the Foxes worked the ball through several phased moves before releasing the ball out wide for wing Jake Howard to score an unconverted try. Anxiety was now creeping into the faithful Otters supporters as they realised that the 29 point lead could easily be wiped out and sure enough four minutes into injury time Bedlinog having again progressed well into Otter territory via several phases before the Otters were penalised some seven metres from their line.

The Foxes chose a scrum and with the Otters desperately trying to hold the scrum firm, the Foxes heeled and scrum half James Soanes dived over for the scores to become level. It all now depended on the conversion which the experienced Daniel Parry converted to great shouts of joy from his colleagues.

A minute later, the ref blew time, the score now 29-31 with the Otters gaining two league points and the Foxes five league points. The home supporters were stunned, it all seemed to change with the early substitutions.

In the past, fresh legs have actually increased the Otters hold on a game but not on this occasion. A few missed tackles did not help.

Later, a very frustrated head coach commented: “There was a good 55 minutes of rugby. We try to develop a squad and the subs are brought on to gain experience and should be able to play at championship level. In the past, we have been successful in putting on fresh legs. At the end of the day, I accept on this occasion it was the wrong decision. We expect our players to play better than the last 30 minutes. We have to move on, we want these players to make a difference. I had wanted the front row changes to make a difference. And unfortunately it did not happen. For 55 minutes, we made some lovely tries, we made moves which worked. We looked good, but it became a very disappointing game. We could still have won the game at 75 minutes. We are still third, but we must improve. It is clear we have to work on the driving mauls and the next few weeks of training require hard work.”

In the clubhouse, the match sponsors man of the match was Lewys Gibby.

Narberth fielded: Nick Gale, Liam Hutchings, Keiron Jones, Paul Davies, Mauritz Neuman (James Stephenson), Ianto Griffiths, Lewys Gibby, Bradley Davies (Rhys Davies), Dan Smith (Rhodri Owen), Tom Slater, Jake Simm (Ryan Banner), Alex Jenkins (capt.), Tom Powell, Sean Jenkins, Steffan Phillips.