Aberystwyth 17 pts. Tenby Youth 11
On a dry and pleasant Tuesday evening, Tenby Youth travelled up the coast to play Aberystwyth in the Griffiths Cup and it was credit to all 15 players who made themselves available at short notice, and made the trip to fulfil this challenging mid-week fixture. As with their previous match against Pembroke Dock, Tenby started very quickly and soon engineered a situation that allowed promising outside-half Toby Smith to drop a goal and put the Seasiders a deserved three points up. Buoyed by this early success, Tenby continued to spin the ball wide in an attempt to drag the big, experienced home pack around the park and when a move did breakdown, it was the Tenby breakaway trio of Roy Osborne, Henry Boot and Luke Dedman who were first to the action to regain the ball to allow half-backs Jamie Robbins and Toby Smith to feed their eager threes. One such passage of play very close to half-time, however, turned sour for Tenby, as a lucky interception by the Aberystwyth outside-half ended when he dotted the ball down under the sticks for a converted try and Tenby were a shade unlucky to go into the break, down 7-3. The beginning of the second period clearly belonged to Aberystwyth as their big pack started to dominate possession and it came as no surprise when after a period of sustained pressure the home side found a chink in the Tenby defence and went over for their second converted try to extend their lead to 14-3. To their credit, the young Tenby outfit did not buckle under this intense pressure, but responded when a fine threequarter move was brought to a halt when Aberystwyth drifted offside and Smith fired over the resulting penalty to close the scores to 14-6. Where as previously the home side ignored pots at goal when awarded a penalty, preferring to tap and run at the Tenby defenders, they were shouted at by their coach to "go for the sticks" and they duly took his advice at the next opportunity and extended the lead back to 11 points, taking the scores to 17-6. Any thoughts Aberystwyth might have had about the game being won were very quickly dispelled as Tenby upped the pace in the final quarter, with Pikey leading by example and the Tenby back row trio of Roy Osborne, Henry Boot and Luke Dedman putting in an incredible amount of work in the loose, offering scrum-half Jamie Robbins the opportunity to snap away at the breakdown and take every opportunity to either get his threes into action or to snipe away close to the breakdown and test the home defence. With time running out, Tenby began to throw caution to the wind and excellent straight and decisive running by centres Ben Griffiths and Jamie Williams enabled wing Lloyd Thomas -starting in the side for the first time - to score wide out and close the scores to 17-11. The kick sailed wide and the few minutes that remained saw Aberystwyth play 'ball up the jumper rugby' as they closed the game down and hung on to their lead, and a home semi-final game against previously unbeaten Whitland. Each and every Tenby player deserves credit for their commitment and for the style of rugby played. Aberystwyth might have come away with a victory, but it was Tenby who tried to play simple and effective running rugby with the possession they had, with every player playing his part. Afterwards, coach Gareth Thomas and Steve Williams were full of praise for the team and were also very proud Dads! Tenby side: Andrew Stretton, Simon Stanford, Ben Griffiths, Jamie Williams, Lloyd Thomas, Toby Smith, Jamie Robbins, Roy Osborne, Luke Dedman, Henry Boot, Yannick Parker, Sam Ferguson, Pikey, Joe Lewis and Joe Morris.