Tenby United 15 pts.

Dunvant 33

Despite not quite notching up that elusive first win of the season, there were vast improvements from the G.D. Harries and Sons sponsored Tenby Utd last Saturday when they welcomed high-flying Dunvant to Heywood Lane.

The spirited Seasiders ran the Swansea outfit close in all areas of play and gave the league leaders a real fright.

United matched the league leaders up front and looked to have the edge in the scrum department and moved the ball well behind.

Dunvant managed to get ahead early on through an unconverted try from centre Rhodri Wall before blind side flanker Josh Morgan was deemed to have grounded the ball over United’s line amongst the pile up following a driving lineout in the corner despite several Seasiders bodies being between the grass and the ball.

Despite calls from the Tenby Utd supporters, referee Matthew Thomas awarded the try which went unconverted.

It was far from one way traffic though and the Seasiders threatened the Dunvant line on many occasion with flanker Andrew Cooke, centre Toby Smith and his brother and No8 Sam all getting either within a whisker of the line or crossing it only to be disallowed the score.

Tenby knew that they were well in the game though and had nothing to fear from the visitors and so they didn’t let things frustrate them and continued to battle hard with stand in skipper Harry Bolton leading from the front and carrying the ball well, along with powerful second row Rob Weston and centre Mark Heywood who all caused the Dunvant defence problems.

Outside half James Davies kept his side’s nose in front with a penalty goal on the half hour mark which meant that the difference between the two sides was that they managed to score some form of points each time they got into the Seasiders 22.

Tom Lewis landed a superb penalty from the half-way line for Tenby just before the break following some excellent defensive work from Heywood and Toby Smith, who tackled well all afternoon, along with winger Jack Guerreiro and held the attacking Dunvant player up long enough to force the turn over.

The sides went into the interval with the visitors 13-3 to the good.

After the break, an early Dunvant penalty kick from Davies and a try from second row Lewis Buckley, converted by Davies, kept the score board ticking over before the Seasiders backs really started to threaten .

After wave upon wave of attacking plays, the home side were rewarded with their first try of the game.

Flanker Cooke broke free with ball following excellent work in the loose from his back row comrades deep in United territory, before he galloped up the field well into the Dunvant half.

Quick ball from the eventual tackle area, Smith was able to take the ball in space and he was never going to be stopped on his way into the line and he rounded off a superb passage of play from Tenby.

Lewis added the extra two points with the conversion.

The Seasiders seemed to close the gap even further shortly after when replacement outside half Aaron James finished off a superb move from the home side squeezing into the corner to surely score the try... that’s what the players from both sides and the supporters thought, but, the man in the middle deemed James to have put a foot in touch and the jubilation at scoring such a fine try soon turned to disappointment as yet another fine effort was disallowed.

United battled on though and were rewarded on 75 minutes when Cooke again broke away from the Dunvant defenders and showed his pace again as he galloped in from the from the half-way line to score the try which went unconverted.

Despite never giving up and playing right until the final whistle, the home side couldn’t quite get that win that they deserve for their hard work and the final whistle blew with a final score of 15-33 to the visitors, which didn’t really reflect how close fought an encounter it had been.

Tenby Utd fielded: Dan Colley, Jordan Asparassa, Mark Heywood, Toby Smith, Jack Guerreiro, Tom Lewis (Aaron James), Dan Thomas (Nathan Lowe), Sam Smith (Wyndham Williams), Andrew Cooke, Harry Bolton (c), Rob Weston, Luke Dedman, Geoff Martin, Dan Allen (Wes Bonser), Scott Payne (Ethan Morgan).

There is no game for the Seasiders’ first team this weekend due to the RWC final, but United’s youth team will be playing at Heywood Lane against Narberth RFC Youth with an earlier kick-off time of 1.30 pm which will give you all the chance to go and support the youth boys and still make it back to the clubhouse in time for the monumental clash between New Zealand and Australia. Please show the youth teams your support by showing up to watch.

The Seasiders Seconds continued this season’s rebuild mission as they successfully raised a team to travel to Haverfordwest and they were keen to follow up their recent win against Cardigan, but despite a spirited performance, they incurred too many injuries and narrowly lost the game.

With the youth team having a week off, it was also a great opportunity for some of their boys to get experience of senior rugby and all those youth players that took to field for the seconds played well and enjoyed themselves.

They soon drowned their sorrows though on the bus trip home under the guidance of injured scrum half Will Crockford who led the bus tour home.

We are pleased to see Tenby Utd getting a seconds team out most weeks and we welcome all players that want to play a competitive standard but less serious game of rugby.

If you are interested in playing for the Seasiders seconds/development squad, please ring Will on 07970111887 or join the boys at training.

Senior training is at Heywood Lane every Monday and Thursday from 7 pm.