Tenby United 13 pts. Llandeilo 3
On a still, windless afternoon, Chevron sponsored Tenby United started their 2007-8 campaign against old league rivals Llandeilo at a resplendent Heywood Lane. With new coaches Gareth Davies and Emori Katalau on board, there was great local interest in seeing how the many new combinations would perform, with a good start and result essential if the home side were going to be in the mix at the end of the season when it came to promotion. Llandeilo were presented with the ideal start when straight from the kick-off they were awarded a penalty by referee Adrian Slade, for a Tenby player holding onto the ball in the tackle, and fly-half Alex Vaughn-Morris stepped up and stroked the ball between the uprights to give them an early confidence boost. Reacting to this poor opening, Tenby went straight on the attack from the restart, stretching the visitors' defence as live-wire right wing Matty Johnston appeared on his opposite wing to take an inside pass from left wing Jimmy Davies, only for the move to breakdown with a knock-on at a vital stage in the attack. The pressure was maintained, however, with the Tenby back row unit of Harry Bolton, Sam Smith and new captain Robert 'Chunk' James prominent in a series of quick interpassing moves that tested the visitors' defence to the full and forced them to concede a penalty for slowing the ball down in the tackle area. Tom 'Turbo' Lewis duly obliged by levelling the scores at three-all. As Tenby had positively responded to the visitors' score, Llandeilo responded in kind and Tenby spent the next 10 minutes or so repelling a series of drives close to their line as their opponents tried to use their bulky forwards to force their way over, but the solid red and black defence held firm and were helped out when Tom Lewis boomed out a penalty, awarded for offside, from the Tenby line to halfway. The Llandeilo number 10 tried a similar tactic to get his side back into gear, but his towering kick from the halfway line slowly bounced over the deadball line and Tenby were awarded the scrum back at halfway. A clean strike offered number eight Sam Smith the opportunity to show his strength and after handing-off the first line of defence, he linked with scrum-half Will Crockford, who unfortunately failed to find an unmarked Matty Johnston on his right as the pass sailed into touch. Sam Smith figured in the next move when he handed off the Llandeilo burly second row and charged forward, but the momentum was lost with another knock-on. Llandeilo were desperately trying to get back into the game, but a combination of poor decision- making and slow ball transfer by their threequarters, and some solid defending by centres Heywood and Brace, ably supported by flanker Harry Bolton, who was always in the thick of things with some bone-crunching tackles, brought little success. When they changed tactics and reverted to their traditional rolling maul attack close to the Tenby line, bad discipline let them down and Lewis sent them back with a series of towering touch-finders. In one such melee, hooker Mike 'Penfold' Lewis emerged with a split lip to be replaced by Kiwi John 'Ratty' Rathe and he was straight into action, supporting Harry Bolton with some aggressive tackles. Pressure was being applied to the Llandeilo outside-half and he was being hurried into some desperate clearing kicks, which failed to carry to a position from which his side could create an attack, so they were pinned in their own 22 as Tenby themselves mounted a series of attacking moves intent on going into half-time with a lead. A superb inter-passing move, carried out at pace, involving Will Crockford, Chunk and Ifan 'Box' Davies released centre Gavin Brace with two men unmarked outside him, but the centre turned inside and his off-load was intercepted and the opportunity was squandered. In the build-up to that attack, winger Matty Johnston was injured and replaced by Rhys Thomas, playing in the unaccustomed position out on the wing. The half finished with hard-working second row Wyndham Williams stealing a ball at a maul and releasing flankers Bolton and James, who in turn fed fly-half Lewis, who popped the ball into the corner, but referee Slade blew for half-time before Tenby could take advantage of the position gained. Tenby started the second half like they started the first, this time giving away a stupid penalty by entering the ruck from the side, totally ignoring referee Slade, who was shouting at them to "leave it alone." Fortunately for the Seasiders, Vaughn-Morris sliced his kick and the attempt sailed wide of the uprights. Coaches Davies and Emori took the opportunity of replacing prop Cray, who had put in a solid 45 minutes graft against a burly Llandeilo front three, with Damian Hanlan. Winning some slow ball from the ruck situation was doing Tenby no good at all, as the Llandeilo defence was quickly up on the attackers and they were being driven back as they tried to ship the ball out wide. Showing what could be done when quick ball was won from a tackle situation, scrum-half Will Crockford made a sharp break on the blind side and, with a combination of pace and the most outrageous dummy, which not only fooled the Llandeilo defence, but also the majority of the crowd as well, he made valuable ground before passing inside to the supporting Mark Brace, who made the final 22 metres to flop over the line, totally exhausted. With Turbo adding the extra two points, Tenby led 10-3. Either from exhaustion, or a 'blood' injury, try scorer Brace left the field and Ben Cray returned to the fray as Tenby set about trying to close the game down with some additional tries. The next attack saw a hounded visiting captain, Arwel Davies, badly slice his clearance kick and an offside decision against at least seven of the Llandeilo players presented Lewis with the opportunity to extend the lead, but his attempt just failed. Not to be denied, however, a well-taken catch from a speculative up-and-under by Wyndham Williams saw Tenby set-up a rolling maul situation that caught a Llandeilo player offside and Lewis this time fired the resulting penalty from the halfway line straight and true, taking Tenby out to a 13-3 lead. Wyndham Williams and Ben Cray were replaced by player/coach Emori Katalau and the returning Mark Brace, and some enterprising moves involving centres Gavin Brace and Mark Heywood stretched the visitors' defence as play switched from deep in the Tenby 22 to the Llandeilo 22. The visitors were being forced to throw some speculative passes as they tried to breakdown the well-organised home defence and from one such risky pass, fly-half Lewis intercepted and galloped off in the direction of the Llandeilo line, only for referee Slade to penalise the supporting Tenby players for some infringement. With the game entering the final phase, and the introduction of Emori being the boost Tenby needed for their scrum to start dominating the visiting eight, they were dealt a blow when hard- working flanker Bolton was sin-binned. With this added incentive, Llandeilo tried to get on the scoreboard, but the home defence held firm and ended the match deep in Llandeilo territory, with winger Jimmy Davies turning a good clearance kick by Turbo into an excellent kick by chasing and tackling the fullback as he tried to desperately tried to initiate an attack. In the clubhouse after the game, both Tenby coaches were satisfied with the win, no better way to start a new campaign, but were also aware that there is still a great deal of work to do as they try to get the right combinations together and get the moves perfected, as well as improving the fitness levels. But both admitted "a win is a win - and that's what the rest of the teams will see when they view the results in their respective clubs tonight." With both the Second XV and the Youth also winning, it was an ideal start to the new season for the United. Thanks go to main sponsors Chevron, match sponsors Coors Brewery, match ball sponsors Billie Smith and Terry Jones and man-of-the-match sponsor J. V. Rowe, as the team return to the training paddock intent on continuing their good start with another home game tomorrow (Saturday) against Hendy. Hendy themselves got off to a winning start last week, squeezing home against relegated Trimsaran by 17-15. Tenby fielded: Aled Griffiths, Jimmy Davies, Gavin Brace, Mark Heywood, Matty Johnston (Rhys Thomas), Tom Lewis, Will Crockford, Mark Brace, Mike Lewis (John Rathe), Ben Cray (Damian Hanlan), Ifan Davies, Wyndham Williams (Emori Katalau), Robert James (capt.), Sam Smith, Harry Bolton.