Tenby United 18 pts. Pembroke 30

The expression 'what a difference a week makes' isn't confined to politics. Coastal Cottages of Pembrokeshire-sponsored Tenby United proved beyond any doubt that it can also apply to rugby.

Coming off an excellent team inspired performance, away to Amman United the week before, all the bad habits returned to haunt the team that took the field on Saturday as they surrendered a healthy lead and leaked two late tries to go down to a spirited Pembroke side who were obviously 'up for the game'. A term not earned or applicable to a dispirited home side who appeared to lack any sort of game plan whatsoever.

The usual spate of late withdrawals, and reshuffling of resources to accommodate this irritating trend, led to a timid opening by Tenby, allowing the visitors to dominate the early exchanges. Referee Curry was also prominent in the first 15 minutes or so, awarding 12 penalties against the home side as he appeared to be going through the entire set of laws to spot infringements.

Despite the stop/start nature of play, Tenby opened the scoring with a superb threequarter movement initiated by half-backs Shepherd and Lewis, who released centre Barry Bowen, who straightened the line and timed his pass to perfection to put fullback Dan Colley over wide out. Turbo missed the difficult conversion and the five-point lead was short-lived as the referee pinged prop Scott Payne, who retaliated to a punch, and Phil Williams fired over the resulting penalty.

This score inspired Pembroke who attempted a threequarter move from deep in their own half, only to see Colley and Shepherd organise themselves to encourage the ball carriers out wide and halt the promising move with the aid of the touchline and two crunching tackles.

Next it was Tenby who tried to run the ball from deep, but Dan Colley had nobody in support and held on to the ball in the tackle. Running the ball from the resulting penalty backfired on Pembroke as they offended and Turbo obliged by slotting the resulting penalty, to take the lead out to 8-3.

Undeterred by his initial attempt to run from deep, Colley attempted it again, superbly fielding a high up-and-under and setting off towards the halfway line, only to be isolated again, giving Williams the opportunity to narrow the lead with a penalty attempt, which he duly accepted, and Tenby were now only 8-6 up.

The score was compounded as prop Robbie Clark left the field, resulting in Justin Richards moving up to the front row and young Luke Dedman adding some fresh legs to a tiring Tenby eight.

Two more successful penalty attempts by Williams gave Pembroke a 12-8 lead with half-time approaching, but to everybody's amazement, the half continued and in about the ninth minute of injury time, Turbo reduced the advantage to a single point with a well-struck penalty.

The second half started with Tenby on the attack, with Wyndham Williams, Matt Shepherd, Barry Bowen and Simon Stanford all prominent.

An ideal opportunity to snatch the lead back was squandered, as from a kickable position deep in the Pembroke 22, Tenby took a tap and go, which Pembroke defended well to stop Williams in his tracks.

This attempt was quickly followed by an attempt from Shepherd, who again was stopped from crossing the whitewash.

Not to be denied a score, however, Justin Richards scooped up the ball and came to ground close to the line, where Nicky Guymer applied what was deemed to be legal assistance, for the referee to eventually award a try.

With Turbo adding the extras, Tenby had snatched the lead back at 18-12.

The effort in getting over the line had taken its toll on Richards, who left the field, and the dreaded uncontested scrums became the order of the day, leading to yet another spate of penalties.

Williams narrowed the lead with one such penalty to make the score 18-15.

Pinned in their own half, Tenby were struggling for pace and guile to get away from the danger area and, after booming the ball to the halfway line, Tom Lewis was late tackled and retaliated, only to get shown the yellow card by referee Curry. This very harsh judgement was compounded as Williams levelled the scores to 18-18.

The skill level of the game dived to the depths as two poor sides tried to raise their game, and it was indicative of the standard of play that, despite the home side being down to 14 men, Pembroke did little to threaten and Lewis returned to play with the scores still tied at 18-all.

Tiredness, falling off tackles and the lack of an obvious game plan, saw Tenby leak two late tries. The first came from fly-half Williams, who glided past two statuesque Tenby tacklers, as well as what appeared to be the entire home side pack, to cross the line, to be quickly followed by number eight Weston, who scrambled and was awarded a very dubious try.

With one conversion, the game was over and despite a yellow card to the Pembroke flanker and a round of handbags as a maul broke up, the referee blew for time and a forgettable match was at last over.

Thankfully there are now four weeks when games are spread out, and with two home matches lined up, the coaching staff and players can take time to evaluate and determine what needs to be done to get the season back on track.

Tenby fielded: Dan Colley, Jimmy Davies, Del Brace, Barry Bowen, Simon Stanford, Tom (Turbo) Lewis, Matt Shepherd, Robbie Clark (Luke Dedman), Mike Lewis, Scott Payne, Wyndham Williams, Chris Brace, Tom Jones (Harry Bolton), Justin Richards (Rob James).