PHILLIPS BAGS OTTERS TREBLE
NARBERTH lie fifth in the Admiral National Championship after their 43-0 victory over Tata Steel.
Conditions were wet and muddy and in the first half the Otters faced a strong wind.
However, the home side got off to a fine start and within minutes a stray clearance from the visitors saw right wing Jordan Roberts collect the ball and break the defence. When tackled, the ball was spread wide and full-back Nick Gale gave the scoring pass to centre Ilan Phillips.
Ten minutes later, fly-half Jonathan Rogers chipped over the advancing defence. The ball was kicked on by Hedd Nicholas and collected by his co-centre Phillips, who dived over to score in the corner. The try was converted by Gale.
The third Narberth try came when a kick downfield was chased by young scrum-half Ben Thomas and he won the race to the touchdown. Gale again converted.
Tata responded well and enjoyed a period of sustained pressure, but excellent Narberth defence kept them out.
Narberth collected their bonus point following a moment of magic from Lewys Gibby. He scooped up the ball from a scrum, dashed around the blindside and sprinted in for a try wide out.
Narberth ran in a further three tries in the closing minutes, two scored by Phillips and one by Gale after an excellent run by flanker Caine Rees-jones. Gale converted two.
Amman United extended their advantage at the top of Three West to five points with a hard-fought 13-9 victory at Llandeilo.
The Reds remain unbeaten after registering their seventh win of the campaign in atrocious conditions at Cae William.
The home side had the better of the first half, regularly chipping away at the scoreboard as Amman gave away a few cheap penalties. The reliable boot of fly-half Jonny Davies punished them with a trio of successful kicks at goal.
Amman came out for the second half full of positive intent. Their scrummage, which has been going great guns all season, began to turn the screw as the match wore on in worsening conditions as Cian Lewis stood out.
The pressure finally told on the Ravens and the only try of the contest came in predictable circumstances, as from yet another forward drive Amman’s Iwan Davies broke away to go over in the corner. Young fly-half Iestyn Griffiths landed an excellent conversion.
Griffiths also added a brace of second-half penalties as Llandeilo came under mounting pressure and were forced to infringe.
A consolation for Llandeilo was the losing bonus point they earned.
The Cae William side are at home again on Saturday when they entertain New Dock Stars, while leaders Amman travel to second-placed Penygroes. The sides drew at Cwmamman Park earlier in the season.