Milford Haven 13 pts. Tenby United 22
Playing only their third game since November 14, when Coastal Cottages sponsored Tenby United started their march up the table, high flying Milford Haven caught the full brunt of a team frustrated at not being able to play any competitive rugby since comprehensively beating Trimsaran on January 23.
Despite suffering their now traditional player unavailabilities and late cry-offs, Tenby fielded probably their strongest pack all season which took the home side by surprise and matched anything the robust home eight could muster and won a steady stream of procession from both the set pieces and loose play to allow their speedy backs to exploit weaknesses in the home defence.
Their cause was helped no end by the continual use by the home side of two attacking ploys which try as they might, never broke through the hard tackling and resolute Tenby defence.
Despite having successes against other sides in the division, the move which brought the centre in on an angled run feeding off Jim Farr was met by a crunching tackle by Gavin Brace or Patrick Drayawa or the alert Tenby back row.
The back row of captain Harry Bolton, Sam Smith and big Jim Timoci Kanmahotoya also dealt extremely efficiently with the Milford Haven number eight, Mark Wonnacott, picking-up from the base of the scrum only to spend most of the night being driven back towards his own line. If this trio didn't shackle his run, emergency scrum-half Richard Rossiter was at hand to dish out the same treatment.
With the home side in red and white, while Tenby wore their traditional red and black, the rather dim floodlighting at the Observatory Field made following the game a challenge for the sizable crowd and a test for local referee Andrew Miles.
The first quarter saw play confined between the two 22s, with the scoring opportunities restricted to two penalties to the home side, with Broome slotting one over to give the home side a narrow three point lead.
Tenby responded when a stray kick by Broome was well gathered by young Toby Smith who linked with his brother Sam and the two centres, who in turn found Nemani Ratu in support and he crashed over wide out.
The response by the home side was virtually immediate, with an excellent corner try which Broome extended to a seven pointer with a superb touchline conversion.
Undeterred by this setback, and being 10-5 down, Tenby put together some good moves which either seemed to be initiated by a rampaging Lee Tucker who constantly fielded the ball from deep and set off on a storming run toward the advancing Milford defence, or by fellow forward Sam Smith who revelled in the dominance that the Tenby eight were experiencing and brushed aside would be tacklers and linked very effectively with his support players.
As the half drew to a close the home side were beginning to show signs of wear and tear with all the tackles they were needing to put in to keep Tenby in check. It was during one such combined attack that prop Scott Payne was yellow carded by referee Miles.
A constructive discussion at half-time, with coach Katalau, pointed the Tenby side in the right direction in terms of attack and defence, and try as they might, the home side could not take advantage of their extra man and the return of Payne was the opportunity the Tenby side had waited for.
Quick ball from the breakdown gave Toby Smith the chance to make a neat break and link with his threes with winger Ratu linking with his opposite wing George Evans who went over wide out for a superb try.
This try was very quickly followed by a tremendous burst by Sam Smith who made a mockery of the home side's attempt to stop him crashing over close to the posts.
With brother Toby adding the extras, Tenby had very quickly gone into a 17-10 lead, and despite a Broome penalty which dragged the home side back to 'touching distance', the dominance being shown by the Tenby outfit gave every indication that they saw the game well and truly won with a bonus point a distinct possibility.
The penalty count against the home side was on the increase as their frustration grew with the rock solid defence Tenby continued to put up and the confidence of Tenby was such that they brought on a couple of replacements to give the travelling reserves some much needed game time.
The changes did not weaken the Tenby resolve to go searching for more tries and their reward for more defensive tackling and adventurous attacking play came when some slick inter-passing involving Toby Smith, Ratu and Dai Meyrick saw the fullback crash over in the corner to take the scores to 13-22 and a well earned victory for Tenby.
There were obviously some outstanding individual performances that showed through the gloom, but it was the total team effort that was impressive and took the limelight, which bodes well for the rest of the campaign.
With hopefully the worst of the weather now behind us, Tenby get the chance to show their supporters what they are capable of when they entertain Cefneithin up at Heywood Lane tomorrow (Saturday).
Tenby fielded: Dai Meyrick, George Evans, Patrick Dravywa, Gavin Brace, Nemani Ratu, Toby Smith, Richard Rossiter, Scott Payne, Nicky Guymer, Lee Tucker, Gareth Edwards, Jonny Lane (Gareth Nock), Timoci Kanmahotoya (Rob James), Sam Smith, Harry Bolton (capt.), Replacements not used: Terry John and Simon Stanford.