Showing seven changes from the selected XV, two name and five positional, Tenby took the field at Heywood Lane against a Pontyberem side smarting from a sound home defeat the previous week by division three west leaders Kidwelly.
With the ground in its usual immaculate condition and no wind to disrupt play, the large crowd was looking forward to an entertaining game as a follow-on to the thrilling England v Australia appetiser served-up earlier in the day.
An enterprising start saw Tenby on the attack from the kick-off, with returning skipper Sion Brace figuring prominently in the initial move, along with Mark Stevens, which resulted in a hurried clearance by the Pontyberem fullback.
Unfortunately, from the ensuing lineout, Pontyberem cleared their lines and reversed the pressure, resulting in a penalty award on the United 22. Luckily for Tenby, Jonathan Clayton inexplicably fired the attempt wide of the upright.
Repeating their earlier pressure on the Pontyberem line, Tenby, with Brace and Stevens again to the fore, were unlucky to see several charges halted by some resolute defending, which was eventually breached when from excellent quick ruck ball, Dylan Lawrence fed the supporting Phil Hughes, who crashed over.
Darren Rees added the extra points to give the home side a well-deserved lead.
The good work was immediately eroded when the restart kick was fumbled and from the resulting maul Tenby were penalised for killing the ball and Clayton made up for his earlier miss by firing over the penalty award.
Ironically, from the Tenby restart, Pontyberem also fumbled the kick and from the resulting penalty for offside, the referee somehow managed to forget his original signal for Pontyberem not being 10 metres when Tenby took a quick tap and run, and when play was eventually brought to a halt, a scrum was awarded to the visitors.
In the 25th minute, Mark Stevens was injured and the returning Carl Broadhurst replaced him on the wing, a move that was quickly followed with another penalty to Pontyberem that Clayton fired over from the Tenby 10-metre line to reduce the deficit to 7-6.
Shaken by this undeserved reverse, Tenby galvanised themselves into action and some excellent aggressive mauling by Gene Hocking and Jamie Bohata set the forwards on a roll towards the Pontyberem line, only for a harshly awarded penalty sending them back deep into their own half.
A period of sustained Pontyberem pressure failed to get any reward when Clayton fired the next penalty wide, but this was quickly followed by an excellent try by centre Darren Plumber, who carved his way through some high, ineffective Tenby tackling to score.
With Clayton adding the extras, the half finished with the home side trailing 7-13.
From the restart, the Tenby forwards engineered a well-controlled rolling maul which gained a valuable 20 metres, only for the resulting scrum to be awarded to Pontyberem as the maul came to a grinding halt. Slick ball from the scrum saw man-of-the-match Plumber slice through a very stretched defence and go over under the sticks and with Clayton again on target, Tenby were 7-20 down and their proud unbeaten home record was under threat.
Coach Gareth Thomas obviously thought a change of tactics was needed at this point and in addition to Ifan Davies replacing the hard-working Gene Hocking, Sion Brace reverted to his favoured position of fly-half, Andrew Davies switched to scrum-half, Paul Broadhurst moved in to centre and original scrum-half Dylan Lawrence replaced him on the wing.
The changed set-up worked immediately, with Pontyberem giving away a penalty when killing the ball following a splendid charge by Phil Hughes, and Darren Rees goaled with a little help from the upright.
Pontyberem responded almost immediately when the ever-dangerous Plumber created havoc from the quick ball won from the restart to send number eight Richard Thomas driving over in the corner, putting the visitors into a comfortable 15-point lead.
Clayton missed the difficult conversion and also sent another penalty wide, before Tenby pressurised the Pontyberem defence with a series of driving runs involving Justin Richards, Phil Hughes and Sion Brace, the end result being a penalty to the United when Richards's second thrust for the line was illegally halted.
Unfortunately, the penalty attempt by Rees struck the upright and this time fell into the Pontyberem fullback's arms for him to clear the danger.
Severe cramp forced Justin to leave the field at this point, to be replaced by James Caine.
Fielding a long kick out of defence, Rees was keen to make up for his bad luck and, linking with Sion Brace, took play deep into Pontyberem territory, a threatening position Tenby held for the remainder of the match.
The visiting side's defence was severely tested to the full with a series of excellent team-worked moves and sparkling moments of individualism from Rees, Sion Brace the effervescent Nicky Allen and the hard-working Anthony Griffiths.
The final move of the match saw the Tenby forwards drive deep into the Pontyberem 22 and maintain the momentum with a rolling maul, with the ball being very skilfully scooped-up by the supporting Andrew Davies who put Sion Brace over for a well-worked try. With the final kick of the match, Darren Rees slotted the conversion to bring the score to 17-25.
Coach Gareth Thomas and team can be well pleased with a solid performance and with even more players returning over the next couple of weeks this game can be used to build on for the league and County Cup challenges ahead.
The match was sponsored by Gerald and Jan Brace, BB's Restaurant and Broadfield Caravan Park.
The match ball sponsors were John Thwaites, A. J. Collins Ltd. Development, Dave Williams (pinhead), Philip and Malcolm Brace and Tony Brace - Priory Farm Shop.
Man-of-the-match award donated by J. V. Rowe and Sons.
Mascot for the day was Dilan Griffin.
Tenby: Darren Rees, Dan Shooter, Gavin Brace, Sion Brace (capt.), Mark Stevens (Carl Broadhurst), Andrew Davies, Dylan Lawrence, Scott Payne, Phil Hughes, Mark Badham, Jamie Bohata, Gene Hocking (Ifan Davies), Anthony Griffiths, Justin Richards (James Caine), Nicky Allen. Sub not used - Mark Brace.