Last Saturday Carmarthen Quins travelled to Narberth for their local derby opener to the Festive Season. Unfortunately the rugby they played did not do the team justice and many of the visiting fans left feeling anything but festive. On balance it would be perhaps fairer to say that the Quins were fortunate to share the points.

Carmarthen began the game brightly but unforced errors crept into their game from the beginning and it was soon Narberth with the edge. They kicked and played the territory game better and capitalized on their opponents mistakes.

The first half was a dour encounter and the only scores came from penalties. Three of them went to Aled Davies of Narberth and one in reply to Mark Jones for the Quins.

Unfortunately, too, frustration led to indiscipline in the first half and this led to two Narberth players and David Hawkins cooling their heels for ten minutes in the sin bin.

After the break, stung into action, it was all Carmarthen Quins in the third quarter and the Otters were left reeling. Soon after the whistle a blind side move by Dan Hawkins left Josh Freeman with enough room to cross the line and run under the posts to make the conversion easy for Mark Jones.

Within minutes the Quins stole line out ball, got it out to David Hawkins and the pack joined him to push him over 35m. to the line. Eventually Andrew Thomas emerged from the melee over the line to claim the try again converted by Mark Jones.

Now the visitors were well and truly in command but then disaster struck when David Hawkins was red-carded and Carmarthen were consigned to playing the last quarter with fourteen men.

The Otters’ answer was to get the ball wide as soon as possible and run at the Quins. Despite the Carmarthen coach sacrificing a forward for another back, the Narberth tactic was showing signs of success and often the visitors were looking ragged.

In this last quarter a penalty by Aled Davies and a well conceived try in the corner by winger, Tom Bonnell, saw the scores level. Full back, Sion Brace was rampant during this period and outside half, Aled Davies, marshalled his team and their attacking moves well.

The Quins were holding on desperately now but it still required the upright to save them in the dying seconds. The crowd held their breath as a penalty kick looked to be sailing between the posts, to give Narberth a dramatic win, only instead to deflect off the outside of the upright and save even more embarrassment for Carmarthen.

Reporter: Keith Bond