Tenby United 22 - Kidwelly 31: With a full list of players available for the first time in several months, FBM sponsored Tenby United took to the field brimming with confidence for what was a battle of the basement, as they faced fellow strugglers Kidwelly at a damp and windy Heywood Lane in front of a small crowd, that had braved the adverse weather to support their teams.

Tenby unfortunately needed to make one change to the team originally selected, with Mike Davis coming off the bench to replace Jason Ronowitz and Rob Tuttle taking Mike’s place on the bench. The changes to the original team eventually forwarded by Kidwelly on Friday were not as straight forward, with one positional change and 10 player changes, which made tracking what went on during the game even more difficult than usual when it came to reporting on any visiting team activities.

Kicking-off with the strong wind at their backs, and fortunately the 2 pm forecasted downpour being kept at bay by the strengthening wind, Kidwelly were immediately put into defensive mode as Jack Broadhurst and Roy Osborn ran the ball back at the onrushing forwards.

The initial pressure was maintained as from the first lineout Mike Davis took the ball and guided it down to scrum-half Ben Pugh, whose initial short burst was carried on by skipper Luke Dedman, with progress only being stopped by a high tackle put in by a desperate visiting defender, allowing Lloyd Thomas to put Tenby 3-0 up early in the game.

The game plan of being focused on line-speed in defence and supporting ball carrier in attack was paying dividends.

Wanting to maintain/build on this early momentum, the home side threes threatened and a no arms tackle on Jack Broadhurst, rapidly followed by a bout of chopsing by the Kidwelly players, ended with referee Richards marching the extra 10 metres.

Tenby continued to pressurise the visitors’ line with a series of pick and go’s, but the Kidwelly defence held firm and forced the United to infringe at the breakdown, with the resulting penalty, aided by the strong wind, taking play back to deep in the home 22.

Any benefit created from this attacking position was immediately nullified by Kidwelly as their number 10 was held up at the tackle/breakdown and, spotting an infringement, referee Richards yellow-carded one of the visiting forwards.

Another clean catch and give off the lineout by Mike Davis set up an opportunity for Tenby to cobble together an attack, with initially Moritz Neumann and Jordan Asparassa combining and linking up with forwards Huw Evans and Tom Barrass, being joined by Aaron James and Roy Osborn, but the move came to nothing as the stretched visitors’ defence held firm and referee Richards awarded the first scrum of the game.

With attack at all times still the tactic of the afternoon, Roy Osborn and Jack Broadhurst, aided by Jordon Asparassa, Aaron James, Ben Pugh and Joe Owen, threatened to break through the visiting defence, but a dropped ball brought proceedings to a halt.

Frustration started to creep into the game as Tenby could not breach the visiting defence and this was not helped by a stupid push in the back of a chasing Kidwelly winger and, with the wind still their ally, the visitors took play deep into the Tenby 22. From a scrum, the eight and nine combined to put centre Stuart Morris through a huge hole in the home defence for a try, converted by Gareth Rees, taking Kidwelly into a 7-3 lead.

Spurred on by this score, it was Tenby who threatened the scoreboard operators next, with Aaron James, Rob Luly, Roy Osborn, Lloyd Thomas, Jack Broadhurst, Moritz Neumann, Luke Dedman, Shane Rossiter and Tom Barrass all involved in a prolonged attack, eventually ending with Tom Barrass crossing the whitewash wide out. Kicking into the wind, Lloyd Thomas was unlucky as his conversion attempt bounced off the upright, but Tenby went into an 8-7 lead.

This lead was short-lived as, at a scrum that followed the restart, the Tenby threequarters were pinged for being offside as number eight Roy Osborn picked up from the base and Gareth Rees slotted the resulting penalty for Kidwelly to regain the lead at 10-8.

With half-time minutes away, Jack Tucker replaced an injured Aaron James.

Sorties into the Kidwelly half yielded nothing ,despite the efforts of hooker Dan Allen, Mike Davis and Huw Evans, and high tackles seemed to be the order of the day by Kidwelly, but ironically it was the visitors who ended the half scoring when a man and ball pass was made to Jack Broadhurst and he was pinged for holding on at the tackle and Rees stroked the ball over the crossbar and an 13-8 game.

The message at half-time from the home coaching squad was simple - take control of the game with no forcing necessary - a straightforward instruction which was totally forgotten by the Tenby XV as soon as the game restarted, with 13-8 rapidly turning into 28-8 as a series of errors and basic mistakes presented Kidwelly with three tries. The first was a classic of how not to do things when having cleverly created a two-on-one situation close to the Kidwelly line, the would-be scoring pass was intercepted, allowing winger Allan Squire to run the length of the field for an unconverted try.

It got worse as minutes later, having only just failed to grasp another interception opportunity, the Tenby defence went totally absent allowing the other wing, Arwel Rees, to run in from 50 metres.

With the dreadful series of mistakes still to be added to when a Tenby attacking move simply stopped dead in its tracks and a pass was given to Allan Squires who romped away for the bonus point earning fourth try of the game and a scoreboard that sadly read 28-8.

Any game plan or half-time message was a distant memory now as Tenby tried to resurrect any interest in the game and from one combined forward and backs attack, Huw Evans made the telling break that put fellow front row forward Dan Allen in under the sticks for a try, converted by replacement Harry Rossiter, closing the score to 28-15.

To add to their woes, Tenby had Jordan Asparassa yellow-carded.

The game ended with referee Richards rather prematurely awarding a penalty try to Tenby as the forwards, via a maul, were trying to cross under the sticks, blowing for time immediately after, giving a sense of respectability to the scoreboard with a 31-22 Tenby defeat being displayed.

During the second half, the bench had been active and we saw Harry Rossiter slot in at 10, Lloyd Thomas switch to centre, with Shane Rossiter coming off. The forward changes saw Mike Davis being replaced by Rob Tuttle and props Rob Luly and Ethan Morgan swapping places. The final change, in the 70th minute, saw Charlie Patching taking to the field as a replacement for Lloyd Thomas and Roy Osborn moving out to centre.

From talking to the coaches after the game, the feeling was that there were far too many unforced errors, not playing as a team, with too many individuals doing their own thing, as well as being far too loose in attack and players carrying in ones with no support. Finally they remarked that the low training numbers is having an effect on the field.

With the Six Nations break coming this week, the remaining games facing Tenby are March 23 - Dunvant (a); March 30 - Gorseinon (h); April 6 - Whitland (a); April 13 - Llangennech (h) and April 27 - Kidwelly (a), bringing the season to a close

Tenby fielded: Aaron James (Jack Tucker), Joe Owen, Shane Rossiter (Harry Rossiter), Moritz Neumann, Jordan Asparassa, Lloyd Thomas (Charlie Patching), Ben Pugh, Huw Evans, Dan Allen, Rob Luly (Ethan Morgan), Tom Barrass, Luke Dedman, Jack Broadhurst, Roy Osborn, Mike Davis (Rob Tuttle).