Trimsaran 23 pts. Tenby United 25

Despite arriving at Trimsaran to find that they had lost two selected players, Tenby United came away with their first league points of the season after putting up a spirited performance against a young, large and determined Trimsaran side, who are also sitting at the wrong end of the league table. So, points were vital.

With inspirational player/coach Emori Katalau unfortunately stranded in the Midlands, and scrum-half Jake McFadden not turning up, Tenby were forced to switch returning prop Ben Cray to second row and slot Ed Ayres, fresh from his season in New Zealand, in at prop. Selected fullback Scott McLaughlin went to emergency scrum-half, with wing Dan Colley replacing him, and bringing up Barry Bowen to again play on the wing.

All these changes were implemented just before kick-off, so it came as no surprise when Trimsaran scored very early on when from a period of early pressure, prop Carwen Morgan trundled over the line from a rolling maul.

A simple conversion by Dafydd Latham extended the lead to 7-0 and Tenby looked as if they were in for a very testing afternoon.

Respond they needed to, and respond they did when good approach work by Ben Cray and Scott McLaughlin released flanker Nicky Guymer, who went over for an unconverted try, to take the scores to 7-5.

The effort needed to get back into the game didn't come without a down side as impressive prop Ed Ayres left the field with a back injury and the pack was shuffled around to accommodate replacement winger Jimmy Davies.

The revival was short-lived as Trimsaran applied more pressure and a couple of basic errors ended with a penalty to the home side and a try wide out for wing Mark Davies, well converted by Latham.

Trimsaran led 17-5 and were hungry for more tries against a disjointed Tenby side showing all the signs and body language of a side expecting an avalanche of tries to be run in against them.

To their credit, Tenby held firm under constant pressure from the home side, with young Jason Ronowitz showing his paces and tackling like a demon, ably supported by Dan Colley, Scott McLaughlin, Dai Meryrick, Ben Cray and veteran Niffy Brace.

What was needed with half-time approaching was for Tenby not to concede another soft score and ideally, increase their points tally to send them into the break on a high. This was achieved when from a concerted period of pressure, Trimsaran were penalised and Del Brace slotted over a superb long range penalty to bring the half to a close at 17-8.

Immediately the game got back underway, the scoring trend continued with Tenby again getting another three points as Trimsaran offended at a ruck, giving Del Brace the opportunity to close the scores to 17-11.

Referee Jeff Lake was obviously tiring of the home side's feeble efforts to slow play down and for this latest penalty offence, sent flanker Gary Davies to the side for 10 minutes. Trimsaran were a tad rattled by the action taken, as well as by the spirited way Tenby kept stifling their attacking moves with some resolute defending, and it was from one of these defensive actions that the ball bounced clear and was scooped up by livewire flanker Jason Ronowitz, who outpaced the chasing defenders to score under the sticks.

With Del Brace slotting the conversion over, Tenby nudged ahead 18-17 and had thrown down the gauntlet to the home side.

A penalty right from the restart offered Latham the opportunity to snatch the lead back, which he duly took and a stupid retaliatory shove on a Trimsaran player, when a penalty had been awarded to Tenby, caused referee Lake to reverse the decision and Latham added to the misery being felt by Tenby, who had quickly gone from leading the game, to now being 23-18 in arrears.

Undeterred by this self-inflicted pain, Tenby went on the attack and good work by Scott McLaughlin, Barry Bowen and Del Brace nearly led to a score, but the scrambling home defence just held firm.

From a scrum in midfield, close to the halfway line, Tenby were offered an opportunity to attack when they stole a put-in against the head and Jason Ronowitz scooped up the ball and powerfully broke through the last line of Trimsaran defence to romp home under the posts.

With Brace adding the conversion, Tenby had sneaked back into the lead at 25-23 with only minutes left of the game.

Trimsaran tried everything to gain territory and their cause was helped by a tiring Tenby defence that fell off a few tackles and then compounded the situation by back-chatting when a penalty had been awarded, giving Latham the extra 10 metres for an easier shot at goal.

Luckily for Tenby his attempt curled wide, which was the same fate of an attempted drop goal by the same player minutes later.

The game ended with player-of-the-match Jason Ronowitz seizing on another dropped ball to put in a powerful burst for the line, only to be brought to ground by the covering winger. That turned out to be the last action of an encounter which showed the resilience of a Tenby outfit, which until that time had experienced a torrid league campaign, and very encouraging for players, coaching staff and supporters alike.

With their first victory of the season safely under their belts, and other results going their way, Tenby are now off the foot of the division four table and will look forward to training this week as they prepare to take on mid-table Hendy at home tomorrow (Saturday).

Selection will be interesting as returning players battle for starting slots with the battle-hardened team that made their way back west along the A477 with a very wide grin of satisfaction on the face of everyone on the coach.

Tenby fielded: Dan Colley, Dai Meryrick, Gavin Brace (capt), Dave Otten, Barry Bowen; Del Brace, Scott McLaughlin, Damian Hanolan, Terence John, Ed Ayres (Jimmy Davies), Ben Cray, Chris Brace, Jason Ronowitz, Gareth Nock, Nicky Guymer.