Amman United 31 pts. Tenby United 18

A confident Coastal Cottages sponsored Tenby side travelled East to Cwmamman Park to face fellow league leaders Amman United in the Fifth Round of the SWALEC WRU Bowl competition last Saturday and were comprehensively beaten by a well-organised and very aggressive homeside.

From a Tenby viewpoint, the only good thing to emerge from the match was that they can now concentrate on the league and promotion, comforted by the fact that Amman, as winners, have to juggle outstanding league and Bowl games on the congested fixture run-in to the end of the season.

Amman started the game playing uphill on a very heavy Cwmamman Park, in front of a very vocal local crowd, with the first five minutes or so taken up by the now customary aerial ping pong as kicks sailed high into the clear blue sky from outside-halves Toby Smith and Adrian Thomas.

From the initial three or four lineouts that followed, each side won their own ball on the throw in, with both Luke Dedman and Gareth Edwards feeding young scrum-half Dan Thomas with quick clean ball off the top. Quick ball transfer, via Toby Smith, released centres Arthur M-M and Gavin Brace, but there was no forward movement and the opposition cut down the moves as they crabbed latterly across the pitch.

Good work by Dan Colley and livewire flanker Jason Ronowitz, who despite having his jersey held at every opportunity by burly home number eight Karl Worsfold, created openings, but the home defence held firm.

Undeterred by the constant blocking off the ball and holding down in the tackle area, Tenby continued to probe for openings and a neat move involving Gareth Edwards, Rob Clarke, Luke Dedman and Jason Ronowitz worked Sam Smith clear, but the move was brought to ground with a crunching tackle on the number eight.

Recycling the ball, Toby Smith linked with fullback Dan Colley only for the stretched home defence to infringe and referee Anthony Moses awarding a penalty. The successful kick by Jimmy Davies put Tenby three points up, somewhat against the run of play.

Amman went straight on the attack and only a superb last ditch covering tackle by Dan Colley prevented wing Dean Williams from breaking through.

In their next attack however, what was deemed a late tackle by the covering Sam Smith, was capitalised on by Rhys Thomas who levelled the scores at 3-3.

The long restart kick was splendidly fielded by winger Simon Stanford who seemed to ghost through a bemused home defence only for his floated off load on the home 22 to be scooped up by Rhys Thomas who pegged Tenby back to the half-way line.

Maintaining their momentum however, it was Tenby who scored the first try of the match when from a knock-on following a high swirling up and under from Toby Smith by wing Steph Phillips, chasing winger Simon Stanford skilfully scooped up the rolling ball and dived over the line giving Tenby a somewhat fortunate 8-3 lead.

The next five minutes saw Tenby camped on their line as the homeside battled for an equalising score with about 10 phases of pick and go carried out by their bulky forwards.

Somehow, Tenby held firm and prevented a score, but, from the resulting five-metre scrum, under pressure halfbacks Dan Thomas and Toby Smith presented Gavin Lewis with an opportunity to score as they fumbled the ball transfer and the wing needed no second thoughts as he dived on the bouncing ball. To rub salt in the wound, Rhys Thomas dissected the uprights with a well-judged conversion, to take Amman out to a 10-8 lead.

The homeside were now totally in command and it took some stout defending by centres Brace and Arthur M-M to stop their opposite numbers from breaking through to release their speedy wingers and supporting fullback. Missed penalties by both Davies and Thomas retained the score at 10-8, but a mix-up fielding a high up and under from Adrian Thomas by Dan Colley and Toby Smith resulted in a try for flying wing Dean Williams, converted by Thomas, taking the scores out to 17-8.

Right on the stroke of halftime, a successful penalty, for entering the maul from the side by flanker Sean Mangan, a ploy he had carried out undetected for forty minutes, was taken by Jimmy Davies to narrow the gap to 17-11.

The restart saw the influential Jason Ronowitz seize on a loose ball and cut through the home defence, only to be brought to ground by a last gasp ankle tap. This was about the only positive move put together by Tenby in the opening 20 minutes of the second half as mistake followed mistake and the turnover statistic got embarrassingly into double figures. All the attacks carried out by Tenby lacked 'go forward' as both backs and forwards crabbed across the pitch trying to seek an opening, and the home defence was well capable of handling such a lateral and ineffective threat. Time after time, a static Tenby forward would attempt to pick up a ball at the breakdown and try to barge through the home defence. That tactic played right into the strength of the homeside as they easily snuffed out any threat close to the breakdown, and drove the ball carrier backwards.

Adding three points for a handling offence, Rhys Thomas stretched the score to 20-11 as Tenby fought to retain interest in a game that was rapidly slipping away from them. The score increased to 23-11 as another penalty was stroked over by Thomas as Tenby were pinned on their own line and were forced to infringe to prevent a try.

With the returning Geoff Martin coming on for hard working prop John Palmer and Ilaisa Torau replacing a limping Luke Dedman, along with Terry John replacing Wyndham Williams, coach Katalau tried to shore-up his somewhat bedraggled side, but Amman, with the game well won, added to the misery when they exploited some pathetic Tenby defence ending with Stuart Davies sliding over in the corner. Minutes later, Thomas added a further three points easing Amman into a well earned 31-11 lead. A final change in personnel saw Delwyn Brace replace Arthur M-M.

Tenby were now falling off tackles and an over confident homeside, trying to take full advantage of the opportunities on offer, spilled a ball deep in the Tenby half for wing Jimmy Davies to scoop up and set off up field. Tackled by the last line of defence, he just about manage to lob the ball to the supporting Dan Colley who trotted over unopposed. The extra two points were added by Davies and the scores narrowed to 31-18 as referee Moses brought the game to a close.

This was a performance where few players can be satisfied with their overall contribution. Backs Dan Colley, Simon Stanford (who appeared all over the pitch putting in last ditch tackles) and Toby Smith, along with Jason Ronowitz, who ran himself to a stand still, deserve special mention and coaches Emori Katalau and Arthur M-M will need to work hard to get the team back into shape for a testing top versus 'bottom' league encounter down at Cefneithin tomorrow.

Tenby fielded: Dan Colley; Jimmy Davies; Gavin Brace; Arthur M-M (Delwyn Brace); Simon Stanford; Toby Smith; Dan Thomas; John Palmer (Geoff Martin); Nicky Guymer (capt.); Rob Clarke; Gareth Edwards; Wyndham Williams (Terry John); Luke Dedman (Ilaisa Torau); Sam Smith; Jason Ronowitz.