Facing the kick-off, Tenby, with a strong cross-field breeze favouring neither side, started well enough and easily handled the initial attacking sorties by the home side in this Division Three West clash on Saturday.
With only five minutes on the clock, however, a penalty for offside - a mere five metres inside the Tenby half - should have been sufficient notice of the kicking threat poised by the Kidwelly number 10, Leighton Walters, as he gave the home side a three-point lead with a superbly struck kick.
The threat was obviously ignored, as immediately from the restart, Walters had his second chance as Tenby were penalised for some very lazy retreating from the breakdown area. This time the kick just sailed wide of the uprights.
Kidwelly were constantly putting Tenby under pressure, with their heavy forwards being used to great effect by scrum-half Thomas with a series of pop passes, each move gaining good ground for the home side. The tackling required to counter this type of attacking/close play rugby needs to be top quality and consistent and unfortunately this was not the case as a bad missed tackle by Neil Powling put Tenby under pressure which eventually resulted in Walters doubling the home side's lead.
In their first attack of note, Tenby, through forwards Anthony Griffiths and Chris James, created a situation where Kidwelly needed to kill the ball to stop the attack developing and from the resulting penalty Neil Powling reduced the lead with a kick from in front of the posts.
This score encouraged Tenby, who, through a series of slick handling movements, started to test the home defence. Unfortunately, a bad throw-in to the lineout by hooker Hughes deep in Kidwelly territory saw the home side quickly take play to within metres of the Tenby line and set-up a platform for yet another forward drive. The drive was illegally brought to ground and referee Walker from Clydach had no hesitation in awarding a penalty try - converted by Walters to make the score 13-3.
This reverse fired Tenby back into life. A series of charging runs and excellent support play by the industrious back row gained a foothold deep in the Kidwelly half, only for the ball to be mis-controlled from the base of an attacking scrum which allowed the home scrum-half to clear the danger.
On the half-hour mark, however, Tenby gained some reward when Powling slotted his second penalty for an offside offence to put the Seasiders seemingly back in touch at 13-6.
With instructions from coach Brian Powell shouted from the side-line, Kidwelly reverted to their short passing game. Again missed tackles made Tenby pay dearly when from a period of prolonged pressure on their line, including two 'pick up and go' charges by influential number eight Jonathan Evans, the Kidwelly right wing crashed over in the corner as Tenby simply ran out of cover defence.
To rub salt into the wound, Walters slotted a magnificent conversion from wide out and at 20-6 Tenby were really up against it.
The half finished with Walters, obviously encouraged with his conversion success, attempting an ambitious drop goal when his threequarters were yelling for him to spin the ball wide to take advantage of an overlap situation.
Very early in the second half, the usually reliable Darren Rees put his colleagues under pressure when an attempted clearance went straight to the unmarked Kidwelly centre. However, it was Rees who more than redeemed himself when his superb follow-up and tackle stopped the home side from capitalising on his initial mistake.
A blatant trip on captain Sion Brace as he attempted to get his backs into the game, was very leniently dealt with by the referee, who simply awarded a penalty. Finding touch deep in the Kidwelly half from the resulting kick should have provided Tenby with a platform to pressure the home side. Another bad throw by Hughes, however, resulted in Kidwelly being awarded the put-in at the resulting scrum and the impressive Jonathan Evans again made good ground to halfway for supporting centre Stuart Northcote to make a scintillating break, which was finished off in the corner by winger Aled Daniels. With the conversion narrowly missing, Tenby were now 25-6 down.
Second row Gavin Nicholas, who had been struggling from midway through the first half, was replaced by Gene Hocking, who quickly showed his pace and ball handling skills which went unrewarded as the game unfortunately entered an indifferent phase, with neither side managing to string together any worthwhile moves.
On the 20-minute mark, concerted pressure by the Tenby forwards, with newcomer Hocking again prominent, resulted in some poor decision-making by the Tenby half-backs who, when presented with opportunities to move the ball wide, repeatedly turned back inside. This passage of play highlighted that on the day, Ollie and Sion Brace were both guilty of slow decision making and selecting repetitive attacking options which played to the strength of the home side who, amongst other things, defensively excelled around the breakdown and scrummage areas.
This weakness was not helped when a poor low pass from the base of the scrum by Ollie put Sion under pressure and he needed to keep hold of the ball when tackled by the rampant home back row to prevent yet another ball being turned-over. From the ensuing penalty, Kidwelly won the resulting lineout, only for Chris James to be yellow-carded for a similar ball killing offence.
The 14-man Tenby side were now under considerable pressure and the usual penalty, touch, lineout win, rolling maul - executed superbly by Kidwelly - extended the lead to 30-6
The restart by Neil Powling when straight out on the full. Almost immediately Powling was replaced by Wayne Morris.
With time running out and the game well and truly lost, Tenby gained some satisfaction when a kick and chase saw Sion Brace win the touchdown and with a successful conversion by Darren Rees, close the scores to 30-13.
With 10 minutes of the game remaining, the Kidwelly second row and captain, Peter Morris, was invited to take 10 minutes rest for back-chatting to the official and with that coinciding with Chris James' return, the scene was set for Tenby to add to their tally. Rob Thomas also replaced the hard-working Mark Badham.
As expected, Kidwelly again reverted to the tried and trusted ploy of rolling maul and short inter-passing, only for a dropped pass to be fly-hacked through, presenting Tenby with a throw-in right on the Kidwelly line. The opportunity came to nothing as the home side muscled their way out of a very tight situation.
Playing his final replacement, coach Gareth Thomas brought Nicky Guymer on for Phil Hughes, but with the Tenby half-backs again persisting in taking the ball back inside, the 14-man Kidwelly side more than held their own and kept the United at bay.
In a final assault on the Tenby line, an attacking scrum provided the platform for a text-book score. Several back row initiated breaks, that sucked in the Tenby cover, provided the home side with the opportunity to quickly spin the ball wide for winger Jones to cross the line unopposed. Very simple and well executed - a lesson hopefully Tenby will take on board when they next take to the training field.
Tenby: Darren Rees, Mark Stevens, Gavin Brace, Neil Powling (Wayne Morris), Dan Shooter, Sion Brace, Ollie Brace, Scott Payne, Phillip Hughes (Nicky Guymer), Mark Badham (Rob Thomas), Chris James, Gavin Nicholas, (Gene Hocking), Simon Phillips, Anthony Griffiths, Justin Richards.