Tenby United 39 pts. Amman United 14
With promotion from Division Four West already guaranteed after the previous week's emphatic win at relegated Pembroke Dock, Coastal Cottages sponsored Tenby United took the field against promotion rivals Amman United, who were the only side who could deprive them of the championship, totally focused on coming off the field at 'fortress' Heywood Lane with a victory.
With a sizable local crowd adding their strong vocal support, the scene was set for a classic encounter... and Tenby did not disappoint.
Like the previous week, the game got underway with Tenby playing at pace, both in attack as well as defence, against the only side to defeat them in the league.
And Amman were very soon aware that in attack, the United were looking to expose the visitors with straight running and excellent backing-up, while in defence, any tackles made by anyone in a red and black jersey, drove the Amman player back towards his own try line or safely into touch.
First to show his attacking flair was fullback Dan Colley when, following an opening salvo of high kicks, he fielded the ball and linked with Llaisa Torau, who was just stopped as he tried to break through the stretched Amman defence.
This constant attacking threat was frustrating the visitors and following some after-tackle spats, they were quickly brought to task by referee Alan Jenkins, who was obviously intent on having a good, open, clean game.
Centre pairing Arthur MM and Mark Heywood were next in action when a neat exchange between them opened up the Amman defence, with the move being carried on by forwards Johnny Lane, Wyndham Williams, Nicky Guymer, Richard Rossiter, Llaisa Torau and Jason Ronowitz. Unfortunately, a loose pass by Ronowitz was intercepted, but the speedy flanker quickly recovered and brought the Amman player down before anything threatening developed.
From the scrum that followed, Toby Smith and Mark Heywood easily created space with a neat run-around ploy, but unfortunately referee Jenkins adjudged the final scoring pass forward.
Under pressure, the Amman half-backs were forced to kick possession away and fielding an upfield kick, Jimmy Davies made valuable yards and shifted the ball on to the supporting Jason Ronowitz. Although eventually tackled, Jason managed to transfer the ball to fellow forward Wyndham Williams, who crashed over for the first try of the match.
Amman were clearly rattled by this set-back and almost immediately were scrambling back in defence after intense Tenby pressure had stopped an attacking move, virtually at source, and number 10 Toby Smith released powerful centre Mark Heywood, who barrelled his way through the remnants of the Amman defence to go over under the sticks. With Jimmy Davies this time adding the extras, Tenby went into a very deserved early 12-0 lead.
Over ambitious and eagerness at the next breakdown gave Amman the chance to narrow the scores when referee Jenkins pinged second row Johnny Lane for slowing the ball down and Rhys Thomas slotted over the resulting penalty.
Bolstered by this minor success, Amman were given another attacking opportunity when a high up-and-under was knocked-on by Jimmy Davies and another silly infringement by Tenby gave Thomas the chance to double the visitors' score, which he did.
Tenby were losing their composure slightly and were fortunate when, from the third stupid penalty given away in a very short passage of time, the usually reliable Rhys Thomas screwed his kick wide of the uprights.
Composure was quickly re-established when from an Amman scrum just inside the Tenby half, the ball emerged and it was livewire flanker Llaisa Torau who reacted first by scooping it up and his powerful zig-zagging run took him under the posts for an excellent try that was converted by Jimmy Davies, stretching the lead to 19-6.
Amman tried everything they knew to get back into the game, but the well-marshalled Tenby defence held firm and any attack the visitors attempted simply crabbed across the pitch with no momentum being created, forcing Amman to kick possession away.
Fielding one of these wayward kicks, fullback Dan Colley linked with Toby Smith and, following a passage of slick passes and support involving the two players and hard-working flanker Richard Rossiter, Colley went over wide out for a superb fourth, and bonus point try, with Amman players left sprawling in his wake.
To their credit, Amman battled back into the game and, following a number of debatable calls by referee Jenkins, added to their tally with Thomas kicking his third penalty to bring the half-time score to 24-9.
The second period started with flanker Richard Rossiter, who had suffered a heavy knock while involved in the last Tenby try of an eventful first half, being replaced by Gareth Nock and the first 10 minutes of the half saw Amman desperately trying to get back into the game.
But some superb defensive tackles by initially Toby Smith, soon to be followed by Llaisa Torau, stopped the visitors from gaining any real momentum from their attacks and a lineout steal by Luke Dedman, who had replaced the hard-working Wyndham Williams, stopped anything from developing from a lineout deep in the Tenby 22.
With possession in both the set-piece, where the home front row of Scott Payne, Nicky Guymer and Lewis Davies were dominant, and at the lineout, where both Jason Ronowitz and Llaisa Torau were at their disruptive best, Amman were forced to again revert to their fall-back attacking ploy of kick and chase. And from a badly directed up-and-under, wing Dai Meyrick took a ball superbly to set of on an arcing run across the pitch and with one or two rather fortunate late offloads out of the tackle, Toby Smith scampered over wide out for Tenby's fifth try of the afternoon.
Coach Emori Katalau brought on his final two replacements, with Jack Guerreiro and Robbie Clark replacing Arthur MM and Scott Payne, both of whom had put in a hard stint 'at the coal face'.
With Amman now firmly on the back foot, a clever move involving Dan Colley and man-of-the-match Jason Ronowitz was stopped just short of the try line, but from the ensuing scrum, the retreating visitors' pack lost control and, with Will Crockford breathing down his neck, the scrum-half spilled the ball for the alert Gareth Nock to touch down before it went over the deadball line.
With time running out, and the game well won, a scrappy bit of defensive work on the Tenby line, and a wicked bounce, saw scrum-half Gavin Lewis atone for his earlier error and flop on the ball as it rolled around in the deadball area to take the scores to 34-14.
Not to be outdone, however, the final score of the afternoon went to replacement Luke Dedman at the end of a move involving quick ball transfer between himself, Johnny Lane and Robbie Clark, allowing Luke to stride over unopposed to register the seventh try of the afternoon and a comprehensive hammering for a very dispirited Amman outfit.
At times the game had got a tad feisty, but anything spotted was quickly and expertly handled by referee Alan Jenkins, who had made it clear to the two sides very early on, that he would stand for no nonsense.
Tenby would also like to thank MOLSON Coors for sponsoring the game and for the ball sponsorship by Mr. and Mrs. McGrath, of the Woodridge Hotel at Wooden, as well as extending a massive nod of gratitude to main sponsors, Matthew and Sophie Evans, of Coastal Cottages, as well as all the match, ball and other sponsorship support from the Tenby area - the team hopes this performance emphasised their thanks.
A win was the order of the day and failing that, a draw would have been acceptable in terms of points needed to secure the championship. To record a seven to one try thrashing was beyond the wildest dreams of anyone at the club, and while Tenby can now prepare for their final encounter at Cardigan tomorrow (Saturday), safe in the knowledge that top spot is assured, both Cardigan and a well-beaten Amman United side will face an agonising last few weeks as the final games of the campaign are negotiated and we see who emerges as league runners-up.
Cardigan, with Saturday's tricky encounter with champions Tenby being their last match, currently sit in second spot with 84 points, and a potential maximum of 89 points. Amman, having played 18 games, have accumulated 71 points and if they gain the maximum five points from their remaining four games, can reach 91 points. There are several interesting permutations achievable there. Watch this space!
Well played Tenby, and without a shadow of doubt, this victory was, by a country mile, your best performance of the season and a match the missing league regulars, Gavin Brace, Turbo, Simon Stanford, Dan Thomas, Sam Smith, Terry John, Gareth Edwards and Johnny Palmer would really love to have been part of.
Tenby fielded: Dan Colley, Dai Meyrick, Arthur M-M (Jack Guerreiro), Mark Heywood, Jimmy Davies, Toby Smith, Will Crockford, Scott Payne (Robbie Clark), Nicky Guymer (capt), Lewis Davies, Johnny Lane, Wyndham Williams (Luke Dedman), Richard Rossiter (Gareth Nock), Jason Ronowitz, Llaisa Torau.