NARBERTH welcomed Ystrad Rhondda to the Lewis Lloyd ground on Saturday (Mar 12) for a league match having beaten the visitors in a Cup match the previous week.
After fifteen minutes centre Joe Hutchings made an excellent outside break and then slipped a pass inside to supporting scrum half George MacDonald who scored near the posts. Full back Nick Gale converted the try to give the Otters an early 7-0 lead.
Shortly afterwards from a driving maul near the Narberth line, the Ystrad hooker broke away and scored a try under the posts which was converted by the visitors fly half (7-7).
Ten minutes later a lovely break from the base of a scrum by George MacDonald saw the ball moved wide and Nick Gale scored in the clubhouse corner (12-7).
Shortly afterwards Gale increased the score with a penalty (15-7).
Just before the end of the first half Ystrad scored a further try which was converted to bring the score to 15-14.
Narberth supporters were looking for a better performance from their team in the second half but unfortunately Ystrad had other ideas and seemed to be far more determined to get a result on the day.
Narberth had a greater share of possession and dominated the set pieces but a dogged and sometimes offside defence kept the Otters from scoring.
Then a mistake in the Narberth defence gifted the visitors a try which was converted to give them a 15-21 lead.
Despite Narberth’s attempts in the last ten minutes of the game when they came close to scoring on several occasions, Ystrad’s defence held out and they gained a well deserved victory for their efforts.
Narberth will be hoping for a better performance when they travel to Trebanos for a league match on Friday night.
