IN the end Narberth ran out convincing winners in the WRU Championship  against a Cardiff Met side that were not to be underestimated.

That was certainly the case on Saturday as, after two below par performances for the Otters, they produced a showing of liveliness and energy that has been missing in recent weeks which powered them over the line to run out 40 to 14 winners.

Coach Sean Gale said he was very pleased with the performance from the entire pack.

“Met started superbly as they always do,” said Gale after the game. “They are a well-coached side. They have been beating teams for fun this year but we went in with a game plan, stuck to the game plan and eventually it worked.”

Narberth were particularly impressive in defence and in a scrum which eventually completely over-powered Met.

“Defensively there were times in the game when we could have cracked,” continued Gale, “but we didn’t and we were fantastic especially in the 10 to 15 minutes of the second half.

“The set piece, we wanted to dominate that area which we did. We had about four or five scrum penalties and we took their thunder away from them.”

Particular stand out for Narberth was winger Jordan Roberts who scored two, set-up one and made the crucial high take to set Narberth on their way to their fourth try.

Roberts said he had added incentive on the day with a little point to prove against his old team.

“Met are my old team so I wanted to put in a good performance,” said Roberts.

“All the coaching staff were still there when I was there so I wanted to put in a performance and prove I still got it and I am not an old man yet.”

Gale is delighted with the progress Roberts is making.

“He only played 50 minutes,” said Gale.

“Jordan scored some lovely tries today and was a step above everyone else. He is improving every game, has settled in and we want to get his hands on the ball a bit more.”

The win sees Narberth in third with 18 points and four wins and one loss, one point behind Neath and six behind Bargoed.

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First half: Met start quick

Narberth didn’t so much start poorly as Met started superbly, scrumhalf Haydn Lidstone breaking through the centre and diving under the posts and then converting.

Roberts got the first of his two tries either side of a Nick Gale penalty powering over the line in the corner within five minutes then finishing well on 15’ after Met lost a lineout.

Cardiff scored a great try on 32’ playing expansive rugby which saw Dafydd Tiueti make a great run then a switch of play got it quickly to Ewan Bowden who had a lot to do to finish.

A Gale penalty then more heroics from Roberts, who took a high ball in the Met half, offloaded to Gale who was stopped only metres before the line, and from there the Otters worked it to Tom Powell who finished, meant Narberth went in at the half 23-14 ahead.

Second half: Otters scrum steamrolls Met

The second half was tough for Met. They started making errors, giving away three penalties in the opening of the half which led to a Gale penalty.

More errors which included missing taking a high ball allowed the electric Rodgers to stretch his legs, he offloaded to Gale who finished and converted to give Narberth a 33-14 lead with 20’ to play.

In the middle of the second half Narberth’s defence held strong as Cardiff retained the ball but were unable to break the Otters line.

Then Narberth’s scrum came into action. After picking up a pen for Met’s scrum collapsing, Narb chose to kick to the corner. Five yards from the try line, this scrum drove over the line for halfback Rhys Lane to apply the simplest of finishes.

Cardiff did get a consolation try through substitute Dylan Barklett however the conversion from Lidstone was missed leaving the final score at 40-19. 

Next up for Narberth is an away trip to Glamorgan Wanderers on January 8.