Amman United 13 pts. Tenby United 21

Despite suffering what is becoming a regular and annoying occurrence of losing players selected on Thursday night at training, Coastal Cottages of Pembrokeshire sponsored Tenby United took the field at Cwmamman Park against a buoyant Amman United fresh from last week's 26-24 victory at Pembroke.

With heavy overnight rain, and several of the other local games called off as late as Saturday morning, an untried and untested Tenby outfit, wearing their bright pink change kit, trotted out to be confronted by a very gusty wind blowing across the pitch and not really knowing what to expect either from the opposition or themselves.

Both sides took time to settle in the extremely gusty conditions, made even worse by the wet conditions underfoot, which made both running and handling a bit of a lottery.

A superb break from broken play by Wyndham Williams, supported by Dan Colley, was the first piece of class shown by both sides, only to be soon forgotten as in another attempt to get the ball out wide, Dan Colley threw an outrageously long pass that held up in the wind to be grabbed by centre Christian Madge, who trotted over unopposed under the sticks for the first score of the game.

With outside-half and captain Rhys Thomas converting, Tenby were seven points down against a side now getting into their stride and gaining confidence.

Play was getting bogged down in the centre of the field, with a combination of dropped passes and crunching tackles stopping anything worthwhile from developing.

Young Simon Stanford broke the deadlock with a scintillating run out of defence, evading several tackles to set up a platform for Tom 'Turbo' Lewis to fire over a well-struck drop goal, that defied the gusty conditions to sail cleanly through the uprights.

With confidence now building, Tenby started to apply a series of up-and-unders to take advantage of the conditions and in an attempt to gain possession, the home side infringed at a maul and Turbo did the honours by banging over a long-range penalty, which was just reward for the chasing and harrying carried out by Dan Colley and Tom Jones.

With a single point now separating the sides, play became a tad fractious and referee Roberts was quick to cool things down, but Mike Lewis and his fellow forwards did not take a backward step from any of the physical stuff that was going on.

With his sights now firmly set on adding to his tally, Turbo attempted a second pot at goal on the run, but the less said about that attempt the better!

The next concerted effort involved a thundering gallop by Jonny Lane and Justin Richards, neatly put clear by a slipped pass from Wyndham Williams, and the Amman defence did extremely well to stop 40 stone on the hoof from going over for a try. That phase of play was worth the admission fee alone!

Capitalising on a situation where the home side were getting frustrated with any worthwhile scoring opportunities not being allowed to develop, Tenby started to take control of the set-piece and when a scrum on their 10-metre line was disrupted, returning scrum-half Will Crockford forced his opposite number to infringe and Turbo blasted the ball straight and true to put Tenby, deservedly, 9-7 in the lead.

Tenby continued to harass the home side into mistakes and a determined chase by the rangy Luke Dedman typified this as he chased after speedy wing Gavin Madge and brought him to ground with a superb cover tackle.

The pressure being applied by the home side eventually paid off, however, when from a harsh penalty for offside, Thomas slotted the kick from the 10-metre line for Amman to retake the lead.

This was extremely short-lived, though, as straight from the restart, the home side killed the ball at a ruck and Turbo duly obliged with another prodigious effort from the 10-metre line, giving Tenby a nail-biting 12-10 lead.

In the final flurry of activity prior to the break, a silly offside penalty, made easier with an additional 10 metres awarded for 'chopsing', surprisingly saw Thomas misjudge the wind and pull his attempt wide of the upright.

Huddled together on the halfway line, Tenby worked out how they were going to play the second 40 minutes, as the conditions had deteriorated somewhat, with slanting rain now adding to the handling difficulties.

Play was confined to several pick and go charges by the bulky Amman pack and some resolute defending was needed to stop anything worthwhile from developing.

From one charge, which was stopped by a crunching tackle by Arthur M-M, referee Roberts deemed that Tenby had secured the ball illegally, and Thomas fired over the resulting penalty to restore the lead for the home side.

The Tenby half-backs were using the windy conditions superbly by either sniping around the base of the breakdown or set-piece and putting in probing kicks or, by chipping the ball over the onrushing defence, forcing them to turn on their heels and defend.

This sensible tactic in the conditions was backed by some tremendous tackling by the entire Tenby XV, with all players tackling as if their lives depended on it. This gritty spirit of determination was highlighted by Turbo, who somehow got across to the sideline to bundle the Amman right wing into touch as it looked as if he had done sufficient to score.

The continuous and prolonged bouts of defending and tackling was starting to take its toll on the tiring Tenby XV and first battered centre Gavin Brace left the fray, to be replaced by second row Matt Broadhurst (who slotted in on the wing) to be followed by number eight Justin Richards, who had run himself into the ground and was replaced by Ben Cray. Both combinations of backs and forwards needed to reshuffle to accommodate the newcomers.

With time running out, Tenby put all their efforts into regaining the lead and, while not getting the rub of the green with some of the decisions awarded by referee Roberts, they were awarded one or two sympathetic penalties which they capitalised on to force Amman to defend from the resulting scrum or lineout.

A tug on the shirt of Tom James as he burst through chasing a ball spilled by scrum-half Williams, was spotted by referee Roberts and despite the howls and cat calls hooted out from the stand by the home supporters, Turbo fired over another long-range penalty to remind the home side that infringements, anywhere on the field of play, were costing them dear.

With the lead now back with Tenby, they upped their game and were intent on not only increasing their two-point advantage, but getting to the stage where the home side would be denied even a losing bonus point.

A tremendous steal at the breakdown by the hard working Jonny Lane typified the spirit and gutsy performance being exerted by the entire Tenby outfit and this was quickly followed by a charge down by Dan Colley which was capitalised on by young Simon Stanford, who hounded the Amman fullback as he tried to clear into knocking the ball on.

Several scrums on the Amman line followed this passage of play and the momentum was maintained with the pack stealing a couple of strikes against the head, enabling Wyndham Williams and scrum-half Crockford to test the home defence to the full.

Tenby got their just reward from this period of pressure when Turbo grabbed the opportunity to fire over another drop goal, this time from close range to take the score out to 18-13.

Shouted on by their very vocal set of supporters, Amman went on the rampage to try to snatch a victory, but a superb steal by Robbie Clark stopped them in their tracks and a booming clearance by Turbo sent them back deep into their 22.

From the resulting lineout, Amman infringed yet again and with what turned out to be the final score of a pulsating game, Turbo fired over his sixth successful kick to give Tenby a thoroughly deserved 21-13 victory.

Spirited, gutsy, determined, resolute... the words used could go on and on... all deservedly aimed at this performance. Against all the odds, players unavailable for selection, players dropping out on Saturday, difficulty finding the ground and kicking off late, new player combinations, windy and rainy conditions, recent performances and results etc etc... this was a superb team performance and one which could/should be used to mark the turning point of what has been to date a poor and inconsistent season.

The forwards, ably led by Niffy, ran themselves to a standstill, the backs, with four changes from the previous week, tested the opposition and tackled everything that moved.

For the small band of team management and supporters present at Cwmamman Park, it was a heart-lifting performance and should lift spirits all through the club for the WRU Bowl encounter at home against Pembroke tomorrow (Saturday).

Tenby fielded: Dan Colley, Jimmy Davies, Gavin Brace (Matt Broadhurst), Arthur M-M, Simon Stanford, Tom (Turbo) Lewis, Will Crockford, Robbie Clark, Mike Lewis, Jonny Lane, Luke Dedman, Chris (Niffy) Brace, Tom Jones, Justin Richards (Ben Cray), Wyndham Williams.