Felinfoel 34 pts. Tenby United 12

G. D. Harries & Sons sponsored Tenby United travelled to second-placed Felinfoel last Saturday and showed much improvement.

Not looking out of place against the promotion hopefuls, the spirited Seasiders had their hosts on the ropes for long periods and after a strong first half performance went into the interval ahead by 12 points to five.

From the outset, the United looked to move the ball wide in the April sunshine and use the firm pitch to get their talented backline moving and keep the ball away from the strong Felinfoel pack.

This high tempo style did the trick as most of the first half was played in the hosts’ half, with the Seasiders looking the better side.

After 15 minutes of attacks, the United were rewarded for their efforts when powerful centre Mark Heywood broke the Felinfoel line on his own 22m line and went on a trademark bullocking run. Heywood made it into opposition territory, before being brought to ground, where the effervescent Seasiders’ back row were on hand to recycle quick ball and second rower Luke Dedman took it from scrum-half Dan Thomas and made a fine break of his own.

Dedman sold a dummy that former Wales international Phil Bennett himself would have enjoyed as he watched Dedman canter in under the sticks against his home side. Fly-half Scott James landed the conversion to put Tenby United seven points up.

The United looked to be enjoying themselves as they put more and more pressure on the home side and looked like breaching the gritty home defence on multiple occasions, only to be thwarted by a last-ditch tackle or a handling error at the last minute.

Felinfoel hit back, against the run of play, on the 20 minute mark when open-side flanker Elliot Rees intercepted a wayward United pass to sprint 70 metres for an unconverted try.

The Seasiders took control again from the restart and resumed the pressure on their hosts, making inroads into the Felinfoel half.

The United were again rewarded for their efforts through a well-worked try which was eventually scored by skipper Luke Hansford following a well-fielded Felinfoel drop out.

Good work and slick handling from Heywood, James and Asparassa got the ball into the wide spaces and the flying Portuguese centre Jack Guerreiro looked sure to score, but was held up just short and managed to get the ball back for Hansford to recycle quickly and the open-side flanker muscled his way over for the unconverted score in the corner right on the 40-minute mark.

Tenby United went into the half-time huddle in the lead by 12 points to five and were confident of keeping the pressure on and bringing home the elusive first win, and hoped that three first half handling errors in vital try-scoring opportunities wouldn’t come back to bite them.

This was to be the case as a the hosts looked like a completely different side from the start of the second half and whatever was in their half-time water certainly worked.

Despite the Seasiders being in the game right to the end and working hard, they couldn’t stop the strong home pack and struggled with defensive set-pieces.

The Felinfoel outfit went back to basics and used the slope and the wind to put them in the right areas and four second half tries showed that home advantage and confidence in their pack would win the day.

Outside-half Stefan Rees landed an early second half penalty, before number eight Steff Phillips crossed the United line for a try off a completely dominant scrum five metres out and Phillips would have probably claimed the next try, too, but the referee awarded Felinfoel a penalty try after two collapsed scrums. Steff Rees converted both to put his side in front by 22 points to 12 on the hour.

Rees put the ball in the corner once more and the powerful driving lineout set Phillips up for his third try of the day and Rees‘s conversion put Felinfoel 29-12 to the good with 10 minutes remaining.

Although the home side were the ones doing the scoring from their trusted ‘go to’ moves in the corners, they weren’t the only team in the game as the United still looked to move the ball and played some great rugby themselves and caused the home defence problems and would have crossed the line if they weren’t hounded by handling errors at key moments.

The last word went to Felinfoel and in particular, open-side Elliot Rees as he crossed for his second try which went unconverted right on the final whistle to give a final score of 34-12, which didn’t really reflect the part that the Seasiders had played in the game as they can be happy with large parts of their performance and can work on the things that meant they, again, came up short in another game against a top of the league club that they not only led, but could have realistically beaten with all players fit and available.

Tenby United return to Heywood Lane tomorrow (Saturday) when they welcome Loughor.

The United will be confident that they can sneak this one after earning a maximum try bonus point a few weeks ago in the away fixture and will have worked hard all week to iron out the creases from last week’s game.

Kick-off at Heywood Lane is 2.30 pm, so please support the boys and the club.

Tenby United fielded: Dan Colley, Jordan Asparassa, Jack Guerreiro, Mark Heywood, Greg Lees Griffiths, Scott James, Dan Thomas (Luke Conbeer), (Richard Rossiter), (Jimmy Davies), Rob Weston, Luke Hansford (capt), Timoci Kaumaitotoya (Alex Thomas), Ieuan Rowell, Luke Dedman, Ethan Morgan, Dan Allen, Lyndon Jones (Liam Berridge).