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 Aberystwyth Athletic 19 v 36 Narberth Seconds

The athletic welcomed Narberth seconds to Plascrug for what proved to be an entertaining game of rugby. From the kick off Narberth showed their attacking intent and were quickly into the home teams’ half, but strong defence kept the visitors at bay and the Athletic were able to clear their lines.

Awarded a penalty, Narberth kicked to the corner and after what seemed to be good defence from the home side, a missed tackle allowed the visitors to cross for the opening score of the game and a 7 – 0 lead.

From the restart second row and youth debutant Shane Evans challenged for the ball which allowed number 8 Steffan Nutting to pounce on the loose ball in the opposition 22 from where he barged his way over for an immediate reply. An excellent touchline conversion from outside half Sam Davies brought the scores level at 7 – 7. This spurred the Athletic into action and after a series of strong drives they camped in the opposition 22. A series of quick pick and goes by the forwards took the home team to the opposition line where the ever-present Nutting drove over for his second try of the game.

The Athletic continued in the same vain for the reminder of the half and were rewarded when, from a lineout, they drove the visitors back to allow flanker Dylan Llewellyn to cross. Another excellent touchline conversion from Davies made the halftime score 19 – 7 to the home team.

However, playing into a strong breeze in the second half the Athletic appeared to go into their shells and Narberth fully exploited this with three quick tries which resulted from the home team’s indiscipline at the break down and saw them race to a 24 – 19 lead.

The athletic then responded and started to put good phases of play together and pressurise the visitors but they were unable to convert this pressure into points. Narberth then capitalised on some more indiscipline at the break down where they were able to win turnovers, at times with ease, and after some slick handling across their backline, they went the length of the pitch for the final score of the game giving them a 36 – 19 win.

The athletic squad will look back at this fixture as another game that got away from them and one they should have won which will rightly frustrate them. It was also pleasing to see three youth players make their senior debuts in the game, second row Shane Evans, winger Iwan Morris and scrum half Steffan Turner who all gave excellent performances.