Rugby Special Feature by Ken Mathias (Narberth RFC Statistician and Historian):

 
 
It's always very pleasing when a talented young player fulfils his undoubted ability and consistently produces performances of a very high standard. Without doubt one such player is Lewys Gibby, the Narberth RFC scrum half who over the last two seasons or so has been quite outstanding. When Lewys featured in Saturday’s league game against Tata Steel RFC then it was a significant one in his rugby career as it was his 100th league game for Narberth RFC.
 
There was huge applause as he ran onto the field and within 15 minutes he had another three tries in a fantastic 76-7 victory in what has already been a significant season following on from last year’s amazing campaign in his scrum half berth – and occasional switches to the wing position.






 

Off the bench for The Otters in 2016

 
Lewys began his rugby career with Pembroke RFC, his home club, progressing through the junior sides to the first team and it was from there that on 24.10.16 he made his league debut for Narberth RFC on permit in the 40 - 15 victory home to Llanharan when he came off the bench to partner Ianto Griffiths at half back. At that time Narberth RFC had two very experienced scrum halves in Rhys Lane and Jon Rogers and so Lewys remained with his home club and played just the one other league game for Narberth that season and that was away at Newcastle Emlyn.
 
The 2016-17 season saw Lewys have his first start with Narberth RFC when he partnered James Stephenson at half back in the 37-8 victory away at Newbridge RFC and with Rhys Lane ruled out with hamstring problem Lewys was given more game time and featured in twelve league games and in one of them (the 40-3) win away at Glynneath RFC he scored his first league try for the Club. His performances that season were very encouraging as in several of the games he played in he did exceptionally well and at the end of the season he was named the "Most Promising Player of the Season".

















 

Beginning to make a real impact

 
The following campaign saw Lewys play in seventeen league games but with Rhys still the club's number one scrum half the majority of those appearances were off the bench but when given the opportunity he produced several fine games; namely the "Man of the Match " performance in the 29 - 31 loss to Bedlinog RFC and the 43 - 7 victory at home to Skewen RFC in which he scored one of the tries which secured the runners up position in the division for Narberth RFC.
 
One cannot pass by the 2018-19 season without mentioning Lewys's performance in the 41 - 0 victory over Rhydyfelin RFC which saw him have possibly his finest game for Narberth RFC in which he scored two tries and was rightly named Man of the Match. This was possibly the performance that confirmed the talent for rugby that Lewys possessed and that he had without doubt a bright future in the game.
 
The 2019-20 season, and the following one, were curtailed due to the Covid Epidemic with only 16 league games played but even so Lewys still produced several outstanding performances with possibly his three tries in the 52 - 5 victory against Cardiff Met RFC the pick of them.





 

Game team back at Pembroke pays dividends with awards galore

 
When rugby resumed in the 2021-22 season George MacDonald, a fine young scrum half, had joined Narberth RFC making, with Rhys and Lewys, three outstanding scrum halves available for selection and so Lewys decided to return to Pembroke RFC for a season to get regular game time. That season was also curtailed to twelve league games but Lewys did play one league game for Narberth RFC during that time, namely in the 46-24 victory away to Ystrad Rhondda RFC
 
The 2022-23 season saw Lewys return to Narberth RFC and with Rhys Lane retired he shared the scrum half duties with George and young Ben Thomas, but in November George sustained a serious injury that kept him sidelined for the remainder of the season and the season was to prove one of the most successful ones for Lewys that any player could have wished for.
 
In all he made twenty-two appearances in the league, scoring eighteen tries and named ‘Man of the Match’ on SEVEN occasions, four of them coming in five games! In several of the games Lewys would be moved to the wing position where he also excelled, using his great pace and eye for a break to either score tries or set up his team mates. With so many highlights it's very difficult to choose the best of Lewys's performances but the 40-22 victory at Beddau and the 28 - 36 loss at home to Pontypool, both in which he was Man of the Match, take some beating. Following such a season it was no surprise when Lewys won ALL FOUR major  awards at the end of the season dinner, namely Top Try Scorer, Most ‘Man of the Match’ Awards, Coach and Supporters Player of the Year Awards.




 

Lewys leads the way again with his outstanding play

 
And in the current season Lewys has played in all ten league and two Cup games to date and in which he has continued his try scoring feats. To date he has scored nine tries three against Trebanos in the league and three against Crymych in the Cup round which saw him score that hat-trick having come off the bench for the second half, as he did so spectacularly on Saturday. In respect of the other three, one each came in the away games against Tata Steel, Crymych RFC and a crucial one in the 22-13 win at Bonymaen.
 
So, we at PembrokeshireSport.co.uk join Ken in extending our congratulations to Lewys on reaching this milestone in his rugby career, and still being a young player, hopefully he has many more seasons ahead of him as a Narberth RFC player.