Tenby United 14 pts. Tycroes 14

It was a tough day at the office for the high-flying and unbeaten Andrew Price, FBM Holidays, G. D. Harries and Molson Coors sponsored Tenby United side as they lost three key players to injury during what was already a very tough encounter against a strong Tycroes side who had come to try and upset the Seasiders' six-game winning streak in Division Three West.

From the kick-off, the visitors made their intentions clear by running every ounce of possession that they had through their fast and well-drilled threequarters.

This rarely caused the Seasiders any major problems as the home side's defence was watertight and any attack from Tycroes was quickly thwarted through solid tackling from United skipper Chris James, Henry Boot and hooker Gareth Jones up front and Damo Miller, Dai Meyrick and Lloyd Thomas behind, with all other players all doing their bit in the defensive effort.

With the Seasiders' back row of Luke Hansford, Patrick Roberts and Sam Smith being first to every breakdown, they were able to turn the ball over on numerous occasions to enable the talented Tenby half-backs of Jonathan Rogers and Lloyd Thomas to get the ball wide to centres Jack Guerreiro and Toby Smith, who made inroads into Tycroes territory, before releasing nippy wingers Miller and Meyrick, who both had fine games in both attack and defence.

With the Seasiders dominating the scrum so much that they were turning the visitors every time they had the put-in, Tenby weren't short of attacking platforms early on and it was following one such demolition of the Tycroes scrum that the first points of the game were registered through the boot of Lloyd Thomas.

The Seasiders' eight shoved the visitors off the ball, allowing Rogers to send the ball in to touch deep in Tycroes territory and, with Henry Boot stealing the lineout throw, the ball was soon moving wide to the waiting Thomas, who lined up and struck a sweet dropped goal to put the home side three points clear after 10 minutes of play.

However, the celebrations were short-lived after the promising and dominant start from the Tenby side, who were dealt a blow when Henry Boot was forced to leave the field with a knee injury and Luke Dedman replaced him in the second row.

Tenby continued to rule the roost at the set-piece and earned penalty after penalty through their hard work in pushing the Tycroes pack off the ball every time they packed down for a scrummage.

The hard work being put in by the Seasiders' forwards would be turned into points on the 12-minute mark when the Tycroes scrum was stolen again by the Tenby pack and Rogers got quick ball away to Thomas who shifted it out to the waiting Toby Smith.

Smith showed good vision and skill in spotting that the visiting wing and fullback had been drawn in and so put in a lovely crossfield kick to Guerreiro, who caught the ball and powered through two would-be defenders on his way to scoring an unconverted try and giving his side an eight-nil lead.

Tycroes were next to rack up some points in the form of a penalty, kicked by fullback Carwyn Richards, which was just reward for his side who had put in a good spell of pressure of their own on the Seasiders' defence.

This sparked the visitors' confidence and the game was becoming an evenly contested affair between two extremely talented sets of backs who were looking to run the ball from everywhere.

After a move straight off the training park from Tycroes allowed strong running centre Scott Stevens to break through the so far unbreakable Tenby defence, he found himself cantering into the corner to touch down and level the scores at eight-points all following an entertaining period from both sides.

The home team put in some good phases of play, with strong running from hooker Gareth Jones, Geoff Martin, and Sam Smith, all making good ground before flankers Roberts and Hansford, who worked hard all day, could recycle the ball for the backs to use.

Disaster struck again for Tenby when, soon after the restart, a clash of heads in the tackle area meant that influential captain Chris James was heading to the blood bin with a nasty gash to his forehead. Talented young player Wes Bonser came on as his replacement, meaning hooker Gareth Jones took over and did a grand job with the captaincy.

With half-time approaching, the home side were looking to get James back on following Mo's half-time oranges, but the cut was too deep and they were unable to stem the bleeding, meaning he frustratingly had to watch the remainder of the game from the terraces.

With the score all-square at eight-all at half-time, the Tycroes outfit had a very real chance of stealing the game if they continued to run the ball at the injury-hit Tenby side, who were still defending well.

Tycroes took the lead early in the second half, though, through a well-struck penalty from Carwyn Richards and with this their confidence grew even more and their backline was becoming very threatening.

The Seasiders' injury list took another casualty with half-an-hour still to go when an ankle ligament tear forced Toby Smith to retire for the afternoon, meaning the Tenby backline had to reshuffle. With Sam Davies on to replace Smith, Rogers and Thomas had to move out one position to outside-half and centre, respectively, which allowed Davies to take up his normal position of scrum-half.

Smith's centre partner Guerreiro also had to play the rest of the game in discomfort when a shoulder injury sustained previously was aggravated during a tackle, and the fact that all of the Tenby three-quarter replacements had been used up meant he had to battle on despite being inhibited by the injury.

Although nothing seemed to be going the Seasiders' wa, they didn't give up and showed their true colours by sticking with their game plan and having confidence and trust in themselves and in each other's ability to grind out the tough games.

The scores were levelled again on 65 minutes when Lloyd Thomas struck a penalty goal, making the final quarter-of-an-hour a real battle.

Three minutes later, Thomas gave Tenby the lead with another well-hit penalty and it looked as though the Seasiders were about to pull off a superb win, but a last minute penalty effort from the boot of Tycroes's Richards levelled the score again and both sides were forced to settle for the draw as the final whistle blew the second the touch judges flags were raised.

Although it wasn't the win that Tenby United had gone in search of, they were not disheartened to come away with the draw as they knew that they had dug deep and done extremely well to draw against a very strong Tycroes.

So the, still top of the league, Seasiders will take a lot of positives from the game and will be looking to work on a few things in training this week before they travel to Llanybydder tomorrow (Saturday) to play the first round of the SWALEC Plate competition. Kick-off is 2.30 pm in Llanybydder and all supporters are asked to travel up and cheer the boys on.

The next league game for the Seasiders will be the hugely anticipated trip to Penclawdd on Saturday, November 2, and you are all asked to go up and support the boys in what will be a very tough game.

Tenby United fielded: Aled Bowen, Damo Miller, Toby Smith, Jack Guerreiro, Dai Meyrick, Lloyd Thomas, John Rogers, Sam Smith, Luke Hansford, Patrick Roberts, Henry Boot, Chris James (capt), Rob Clarke, Gareth Jones, Geoff Martin. Replacements - Wes Bonser, Sam Davies, Luke Dedman, Nicky Guymer.