Tenby leave it late, but snatch dramatic last-gasp draw

Tenby United 18 pts. Morriston 18

On a blustery, but dry, warm day, with the wind blowing from the Knowling Mead end, Chevron- sponsored Tenby United entertained league leaders Morriston at Heywood Lane knowing that a win was vital if they were to maintain their promotion push. With rivals for one of the top spots in the league having somewhat easier games, this was going to be a test not only of the playing ability of the team, but also of how they would perform under pressure. Kicking off, playing into the wind, Tenby got a taste of what the match was all about, with Morriston putting together a series of swift inter-passing moves involving both backs and forwards, and the visitors were unlucky not to take the lead in the first minute when back row forward Craig Lloyd was correctly deemed to have illegally crossed the try- line with a double movement by referee Peter Evans from Brynamman. This early threat also carried a sting in the tail for the home side, as bulky prop Johnny Lane was injured in the build-up and was replaced by Mark Brace. From the restart, Tenby tore into Morriston and forced a lineout deep in their 22 and with skipper Ifan Davies stealing the throw, the United attempted to put together their first worthwhile attack, but a dropped pass provided visiting fly-half Palmer with the opportunity to test the strength of the wind as his clearing kick sailed from one 22 to the other. His second opportunity to use the wind came minutes later when a penalty awarded on the halfway line for holding on in the tackle area, culminated in Morriston grabbing a deserved three- point lead. Undeterred by this early setback, Tenby went in search of a try, with Steve Ireland testing the Morriston defence with a neat chip through, which was hunted down by Dan Colley, who forced fullback Wopham to minor. The attacking scrum that followed was squandered as Morriston stole the strike against the head and cleared their lines. Number eight Timoci Kaumaitotoya was a constant threat to the visitors as he attempted to burst through their defence and from one of his sorties, he released the Tenby threes, who were somewhat unfortunate to be penalised as centre Arthur M-M was deemed to have obstructed his opposite number as he chased after the ball. The second halfway line attempt by Palmer fell short of the target and scrum-half Tom Lewis showed what he could do against the wind as he fired the ball back into touch on the halfway line. Morriston were obviously keen to take advantage of the wind and Palmer attempted a very ambitious drop goal which was fielded by winger Dai Meyrick, who showed his paces as he sped along the touchline, only to be eventually bundled into touch. On a rare visit to the Morriston 22, Lewis was provided with the chance to level the scores when there was some mouthing off by a Morriston forward about a decision made by referee Evans and he fired over a well-judged kick to make it 3-3. This was short-lived, however, as within a minute, Palmer was successful with his second drop goal attempt to take the scores out to 6-3. Intent on taking full advantage of the favourable windy conditions, Morriston, through Palmer, made good use of the elements as he repeatedly pushed Tenby back deep into their own half with a series of siege-gun clearance kicks. Without the wind advantage, Tenby were forced to try to run the ball out from their half and following a crunching defensive tackle by Arthur M-M on his opposite number, a superb long pass by Steve Ireland released Lewis, who in turn linked with Kaumaitotoya, who set of on a surging run upfield. His neat chip ahead forced the defending Morriston player to obstruct his follow through, resulting in a penalty and yellow card. The penalty attempt by Tom Lewis just sailed wide of the target. With half-time approaching, Morriston stepped up the pressure to go into the interval with a more sizable lead and good defending by Ifan Davies, Nicky Guymer, Arthur M-M, Dai Meyrick and, in particular, Harry Bolton, who seemed to be never more than a metre from the action, was initially sufficient to stop any threats to the Tenby line, but a breakaway from a maul on the 22 by Adam Shackley ended with the winger squeezing over in the corner. With Palmer firing over a superb conversion from the touchline, Morriston went into the break with a somewhat fortunate 10-point lead. Stamping their authority on the match straight from the restart, Morriston were kept at bay by some aggressive defending by flankers Bolton and Emyr Hughes, with winger Dai Meyrick putting in one superb head-on tackle on his opposite number. The defensive duties were also bolstered by Tom Lewis, who showed what he could do with the wind in his favour as he booted Tenby out of their 22 and deep into the Morriston 22. From an attacking scrum, Timoci Kaumaitotoya broke cleverly from the base, but was unable to link with his fellow back row forwards and a hack upfield eventually led to a try in the corner as number eight Steve Evans emerged from a pile of players that had carried the ball over the line. Tenby were now 18-3 down and had a huge mountain to climb if they were going to get back into the game. Coach Davies took the opportunity to ring the changes, with hooker Mike Lewis taking the field and Nicky Guymer switching to the flank to replace a somewhat battered, but hard-working Emyr Hughes. This reshuffle seemed to be a good tactical move, as almost immediately Guymer was involved in an attack, along with Mikey Georgiau, Wyndham Williams and Harry Bolton, that tested the visitors' defence. The pressure was eased when this time Tenby were penalised for 'chopsing', and referee Evans awarded a penalty to replace the attacking scrum deep in the Morriston 22. Gavin Brace joined the fray, with Arthur M-M shifting-out to play on the wing in place of Dai Meyrick, and the reorganised backline was straight into action with a slick handling movement, with centre Mark Heywood straightening the line and releasing Arthur M-M, who was illegally pulled back chasing the ball through to the try-line. With Lewis having slotted the subsequent penalty into the corner, the lineout that followed provided quick possession for a move involving a crash ball ploy by centre Heywood, carried on by alert flanker Bolton, and ending with prop Mark Brace being bundled into touch on the corner flag. The pressure was maintained, with number eight Timoci Kaumaitotoya next to test the visitors' defence as he surged for the line, but a dropped pass allowed Morriston to boot the ball clear. Arthur M-M fell on the ball that was being hacked upfield, but as he was attempting to get-up off the ground, the chasing Morriston centre flopped on top of him, and from the resulting penalty, Tom Lewis silenced the barracking visiting support by firing over a superb kick from the halfway line to give Tenby some reward for their efforts and taking the score to18-6. A pet infringement of referee Evans must have been players getting in front of the ball from the restart, as having penalised Tenby with the very first kick- off, he repeated the act as Morriston attempted to get the game going. The scrum on the halfway line gave Tenby the opportunity to attack, but poor ball transfer from prop Mark Brace to supporting player Harry Bolton brought the promising move to a halt. With time running out, Tenby put together some slick handling moves, with forwards and backs combining, and one such move released speedy Dan Colley along the touchline and an inside pass to the supporting Steve Ireland allowed the fly-half to neatly chip over the head of the last line of defence for livewire flanker Harry Bolton to win the race to touch down for an excellent try. With Tom Lewis adding the extras, Tenby had closed to gap to 18-13 with less than eight minutes left to play. The only threat Morriston could muster was an attempted drop goal by Palmer and the home side started to stamp their authority on the game as they went in search of another score. Obviously rattled by this late rally, the penalty count started to mount against Morriston as referee Evans started to penalise them at the breakdown. Their cause was not helped by a second bout of verbals against a decision by the whistle-blowern which Lewis capitalised on by pinning Morriston back into their 22. From the resulting lineout, prop Ben Cray was brought down inches from the line, and more comments by the irate Morriston players brought another shrill blow of the referee's whistle and another opportunity for Lewis to pop the ball into the corner. Morriston were obviously frustrated and this reached boiling point when scrum-half Richard Evans was yellow-carded for not being 10 metres from a quickly taken penalty by Tenby. Down to a seven-man pack, Morriston were now under immense pressure and two scrums on their line saw Tenby destroy their attempts to win their put-in and the scrum was awarded to Tenby. Several moves off the back of the scrum were just about kept at bay by the Morriston defence, but with virtually the last move of the game - which had gone into 10 minutes of injury time - Tenby won quick possession from a ruck on the right- hand touchline and a flowing move involving all the threequarters, with fullback Mikey Georgiau also entering the line, ended with hooker Mike Lewis crashing over in the corner to level the scores at 18-18. With everything depending on the conversion attempt by Tom Lewis, even the noisy Morriston supporters fell quiet, but the attempt floated just wide on the wind and the game ended in a creditable draw. Coaches Davies and Kataulau were well pleased with the resilience, discipline and character shown by the team during, what was, a tense game, with controlled aggression applied by both sides for the full 80 (or was it 90) minutes. The next task, to maintain the push for promotion, will be against local rivals Milford Haven at Heywood Lane tomorrow (Saturday), in the final home game of the campaign, kick-off at 2.30 pm. With only three games now remaining, and their fellow strugglers all with games in hand over Milford, the visitors will be desperate for points to avoid relegation, while Tenby will set out to come away with at least four points and a double over the visitors, having won 16-8 down at the Observatory Field back at the end of December. Tenby fielded: Michael Georgiau, Dan Colley, Arthur M-M, Mark Heywood, Dai Meyrick, (Gavin Brace), Steve Ireland, Tom Lewis, Ben Cray, Nicky Guymer, Johnny Lane (Mark Brace), Wyndham Williams, Ifan Davies, Harry Bolton, Timoci Kaumaitotoya, Emyr Hughes (Mike Lewis). Sub not used - Rhys Thomas.