Scarlets West Region Rugby:
Pembroke 2nds 12 - Narberth 2nds 17
Narberth 2nds eased to victory at Crickmarren against a committed Pembroke Second string which pushed them all the way before The Otters grabbed the winning try with five minutes to go and maintained their 100% record over nine matches in a strong section which also includes Newcastle Emlyn and Aberystwyth.
A measure of the improvement shown by The Scarlet Seconds can be gauged from the fact that they had lost 47-7 in the previous fixture at the Lewis Lloyd Ground but they showed little sign of ring rustiness in their first game for a month.
Good performances in both camps
Catching the eye for the home club was flanker Craig Williamson in only his second appearance of the season because of work commitments and he was heavily involved over his 60 minutes of action alongside No 8 Aran Williams, who also carried well and was strong in defence, as was centre Barry Alderman-John and Josh Hicks, playing on permit and getting heavily involved up front.
The Scarlets’ tries came from Aran Williams and Jordan Cornick, with Jarred Sharrett converting the latter – and there were strong claims from the team and their hardy band of supporters as they thought they had scored a late try as Williamson ploughed over.
However, referee Ceirion Burrows, who had a good game, ruled that he couldn’t confirm the grounding and so The Otters breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Pembroke later received a real compliment from Narberth team manager Bill Ridge, who texted Scarlet coaches Clive ‘Tosh’ Rowlands and Simon Edwards and said,
“Fair play, you pushed us all the way and it has given us a great warm-up for Ammanford!” which refers to The Otters’ next game where they play Ammanford in The Scarlets Cup semi-final and then hopefully on to the final, which will be played at Parc y Scarlets in May.
Otters now looking forward to a big match on Saturday
Their try scorers in this match were Ryan Scourfield, Ifan Rees and Ianto Davies, whilst talented youngster Lewis Hough notched one conversion as he played well alongside their man of the match in second row Morgan Lewis and pacy centre Scourfield.
So now Narberth coaches James Merriman and Mattie Davies will be eager to get their players in the right frame of mind for Saturday’s match against Ammanford whilst Pembroke can look back on this tough season against three other very strong second XVs knowing it has really brought on some promising development players.
.