Travelling to Pembroke Dock on Saturday, January 20, to play a friendly against a youth team beaten narrowly on two previous occasions this season would have been challenging enough with a full team. Going down minus several key players through a combination of work, holidays, sickness and injury was a task a make-shift Youth XV could have done without, but with a gap in the fixtures, team manager John Handicott felt a game was required and willingly accepted the challenge. In a very close affair - the previous encounters had resulted in tight 13-5 and 5-0 victories - coming away with an 8-5 win was a much as could have been expected, as Matthew Jones scored in the first half, with Adam Ball adding a penalty in the second half.
Pembroke Dock scored late in the game to close the gap, but Tenby just about managed to hang-on to their lead to snatch victory against a very good home side that played exceptionally well.
Last weekend, with an even weaker side than the previous week, plus the added disadvantage of a squad that only consisted of 16 players, Tenby travelled to Whitland to face a powerful home side sitting in mid-table in the league, but with games in hand over the clubs above them.
The first half ended with Tenby only trailing by 17 points and, despite the nil score, they felt they were still in the game.
The second half, however, was a totally different story, with Tenby eventually folding under the constant pressure and excellent organisation shown by the home side, who ran out very comfortable 41-7 winners.
Injuries during the game resulted in Tenby being reduced to 14 players, but they showed great character, battling on until the end against overwhelming odds.
With the trek to Cardigan lined-up for a key County Cup game tomorrow, the team will need to have got their act together in terms of training and commitment if they want to maintain interest in this year's competition.