Tenby United 14 Gowerton 26: With several changes and different player combinations made at last week’s selection meeting, both at forward and in the threequarters, following their third defeat, FBM sponsored Tenby United faced a Gowerton side attempting to make up for the defeat that knocked them from top spot in the league the previous weekend - so an interesting match was anticipated as Gowerton kicked off towards the scoreboard end in what turned out to be a classic game of two halves.

Tenby started aggressively in conditions that made ball handling difficult and forced Gowerton into giving away a couple of early penalties for offside as they threatened to be the first scorers of the afternoon, with speedy wingers Geraint Powell and Jack Parkinson prominent in the early attacks.

At scrum time, Tenby held firm against the Gowerton eight, so the early signs were promising for the home side, but the momentum was snatched off Tenby as from a sliced kick they counter-attacked and creeping offside at the breakdown presented Gowerton with the first real scoring opportunity of the afternoon, which winger Paul Spowart calmly took, putting the visitors 0-3 up.

Maintaining their new found momentum, Gowerton pressurised Tenby into giving away possession by either knocking the ball on or losing possession in the tackle or simply dropping one of the numerous high up and unders they continually used as an alternative attacking option.

From lost ball in a tackle, they created a situation for speedy fullback Luke Jones to come into the line and create an overlap for Scott Potters to slide over in the corner. Unfortunately, referee Justin Evans missed fullback Asparassa being held back as he attempted to put in what could have been a try-saving tackle, so the score stood and Tenby were now 0-8 down.

The restart failed to go the necessary 10 metres and from the scrum Tenby again drifted offside, as the Gowerton threes got into their stride, and Spowart added another three points with a successful penalty, taking the lead out to 0-11.

Try as they might, Tenby struggled to put anything worthwhile together in terms of threatening the Gowerton line and, despite the valiant efforts of Charlie Patching and Roy Osborn, they remained scoreless and just to compound the situation gave away another penalty for entering the breakdown from the side, and presented Spowart the chance to increase the lead to 0-14, which he duly took.

Gowerton were now fully in control of the game and only some heroic defence stopped them from adding to their score, but despite defending for some time close to their line, Tenby eventually wilted to the constant pressure with second row Matthew Cherry emerging from a well-organised rolling maul having been awarded the touchdown by referee Evans, taking the score further out to 0-19.

To add to their worries, Tenby lost Jordon Asparassa with a head injury in the lead-up to the try, with Moritz Neumann making a welcome return to the team, slotting in at wing in place of Jack Parkinson, who had moved to centre, with Aaron James moving back and replacing Asparassa at fullback.

Despite the restart failing to go the necessary 10 metres, Gowerton played the ball and Tenby hustled their forwards to regain possession and from a penalty awarded for an infringement at the breakdown, Lloyd Thomas found touch close to the Gowerton line, presenting Tenby with the opportunity to at last open their scoring account. The throw-in, however, went sailing over the back of the lineout and was hoofed upfield by Gowerto, presenting them with a platform to add to their score.

A swift bout of handling ended with Aaron James somehow getting his body between the ball and the turf as the Gowerton player slid over the Tenby goal-line, for referee Evans to award ‘held-up’ and an attacking scrum to the visitors.

It was only a case of briefly delaying the score, however, as Tenby were shunted over the line by the Gowerton eight, with number eight and skipper Lewis Bradley being awarded a try, and with Spowart successful with his first conversion of the afternoon, Gowerton had established a comfortable 0-26 half-time lead and had a target of a four-try bonus point to aim for in the second half, while Tenby took the oranges scoreless.

With obviously two totally different pieces of advice given to players at the half-time huddle, the game restarted quietly as both sides cancelled out any attacking moves before they really got underway, and compared to the first half it became a rather scrappy affair.

Tenby scrum-half, young Ben Pugh, and the adventurous Aaron James tried to inject some pace into the game, aided and abetted by Geraint Powell, Pat Roberts and Jack Peterson, but their efforts were quickly stopped by a well-organised visitors defence. In an attempt to insert some fresh options into the team, coach Thomas sent on Dan Allen to replace Matt Done and Mike Davis was replaced by Tom Barrass.

Tenby were now getting more into the game, with Gowerton not even getting close to obtaining their targeted fourth try bonus point, and the momentum was slowly shifting towards the home side. Efforts involving Geraint Powell and Aaron James really tested the visitors’ previously impenetrable defence and only a dropped pass at a critical time prevented a threatening attack from developing into a scoring chance.

Undeterred, Tenby kept plugging away, with Roy Osborn and the tricky running of Aaron James giving the visitors a hard time in defence, but the United had one stroke of luck when an interception was fortunately taken by one of the slower Gowerton forwards and Tenby were able to quickly handle the threat.

Next it was skipper Luke Dedman, Roy Osborn, Lloyd Thomas, Pat Roberts, Moritz Neumann, Geraint Powell and hooker Dan Allen combining to threaten the visitors’ line, with Ben Pugh maintaining the pressure with a couple of snipes around the breakdown area.

Not to be disappointed by their unproductive attacking threats, Tenby embarked on yet another attempt, with this time Jack Parkinson bursting through what appeared to be half of the Gowerton team and their attempted tackles to slip the ball to the supporting Moritz Neumann, who crossed wide out, and with Lloyd Thomas slotting a superb conversion, the attacking threats of Tenby had at long last been rewarded, closing the score to 7-26.

The score was the reward Tenby needed to give them confidence as the second half progressed, but a superb break by centre Roberts following a brief passage of play where the ball was more like a pinball machine ball, did not have the desired ending as his pass to an unmarked Geraint Powell drifted forward.

Undeterred by missing out on what was an obvious scoring opportunity, Tenby regrouped, with once again Aaron James breaching the visitors’ defence, this time linking with Moritz Neumann and Jack Parkinson, which ended with wing Geraint Powell outflanking the stretched defence to score wide out and, with Lloyd Thomas again converting, we now had a 14-26 game.

While the conversion was being taken, the Gowerton coach laid into his team in no uncertain way using language that made it very clear that he was not a happy bunny.

With time running out, however, and Gowerton still having to defend against an extremely confident and threatening home side, in the main feeding off breaks made by the tricky running of Aaron James, referee Evans blew for time, with Tenby leaving the field disappointed with their first half performance, while Gowerton (and their coach) trooped off happy with the win, but ruieng their inept second half performance

Speaking to coach Gareth Thomas after the match, he was well pleased with the second half performance and the way the team responded to his half-time chat, but was very disappointed that all the scores, in what turned out to be a disastrous first half, were results of Tenby mistakes.

Other results in the matches played over the weekend leave Tenby second from bottom in the league, with a rest from league rugby on Saturday, as they travel the short distance to Carmarthen to take on high-flying and unbeaten Carmarthen Athletic in the first round of the WRU Plate competition.

Tenby: Jordan Asparassa (Moritz Neumann), Geraint Powell, Pat Roberts, Aaron James, Jack Parkinson, Lloyd Thomas, Ben Pugh, Huw Evans, Mat Done (Dan Allen), Jack Davies (Ethan Morgan), Luke Dedman, Charlie Patching, Mike Davis (Tom Barrass), Roy Osborn, Harry Owen (Harry Phillips).