ON Saturday (Apr 9) Narberth Under 16s hosted a touring side from Ireland and supporters who attended were treated to a close game of rugby.
The visitors’ squad of 37 players and committee men came from Mallow which is a town in County Cork, Ireland, approximately thirty-five kilometres north of Cork.
The previous day the team had played Llangwm and on Sunday they were due to play Haverfordwest. A very busy weekend was made possible only by them bring a large squad allowing them to rotate players and guarantee that each lad would get game time in at least two matches in quick succession.
Narberth were only able to field 12 players and so the Mallow Committee very sportingly loaned three of their players to the Narberth squad.
In the first half Mallow kicked off looking into the Sun playing East to West on a superbly maintained dry pitch.
After 10 minutes the Otters Under 16’s scored under the posts following a good passing sequence right to left amongst the backs. The try scorer wearing the 14 shirt was speedy Irish lad Reilly O’Hanlon. The conversion by scrum half Olly Hough took the score to 7-0.
Later, from a cleaned out ruck near the five metre line the outside half broke through on the left side and Aeron William scored. The try was nearly converted by Olly Hough.
In another break on the left-hand wing another try was scored by the Irish player Reilly O’Hanlon in Narberth colours and it was converted by Ollie Hough. The score after 15 minutes 19-0.
Then another try by the Otters after 20 mins converted by the scrum half Olly made the score near the end of the first 30 minute half 26-0.
The rotated squad from the 37 Irish players with fresh legs started to dominate the tiring Welsh team and they scored after some skilful jinking and swerving moves by the No 12 the inside centre which was converted by the number 10 outside Half Callum Lyon’s. After 25 minutes the score was 26-7.
In the second half 10 minutes into the game the number eight for Narberth Aaron Williams made a breakout from a ruck a few moments after the Irish Loose Head prop had been slightly injured and winded.
The conversion attempt 8 metres in from the left touch line was narrowly missed and the score stood at 31-7. But it was not over for the Irish stalwarts. They rallied and battled on gaining dominance in the forward.
During the closing minutes of the game there was a further score by the Irish player No 10 Outside half Evan Sheahan but this was not converted. Score 31-12.
Not to be outdone, and now playing back in his Irish green colours Reilly O’Hanlon scored with 5 minutes to go, converted Evan Sheahan. Score 31-19.
The dominance of the Irish team which had enough squad members to rotate players continued right up to the last minute where Reilly and Evan completed their double act by scoring and converting. The Final score was 31-26.
This was a very entertaining game played in a truly sportsman-like way and the game was a credit to the skills of both sides. After the match the teams enjoyed a hot meal with refreshments in the Clubhouse and Narberth team coach Ian Hough commented on the good standard of play before his wife Cathy Macphee, who had helped organise the reception, was presented with a memento by the Irish Chairman Mike Boyle.
