Tenby United welcomed Loughor RFC to Heywood Lane on Saturday for their Division 2 west league fixture on a breezy but sunny autumn afternoon in front of a good crowd.

Despite the wind advantage for Tenby it was Loughor who started the stronger of the two sides, and for the next 10 minutes the visitors made continued efforts to cross the white wash but the Seasiders held strong with some excellent defence from the likes of skipper Luke Dedman, fellow second row Tom Barrass and number 8 Jack Broadhurst.

An early substitution saw Will Swales take to the field in place of number 8 Jack Broadhurst who was suffering with a foot injury sustained during the warm up. Swales was straight into action as Tenby were awarded a penalty that saw Jones put the ball deep into the opposition’s 22 and from the resulting lineout ball the Tenby pack muscled the ball over the line with back rower Jake Roberts claiming the all important touchdown for the opening score of the afternoon.

Max Brindley’s conversion attempt affected by the wind just failed to add the extra two points.

It wasn’t long before Tenby once again worked the ball into the Loughor 22 and from another excellent lineout the ball worked its way out to Toby Smith who punched through a gap in the centre and offloaded in the tackle to hard working flanker Dan Colley who touched down behind the sticks for Tenby’s second score of the afternoon.

This time Brindley successfully added the extras to give Tenby a 12-0 lead at half time.

After the break, persistent infringements at the breakdown saw Loughor lose one of their flankers to the bin for ten minutes, with the resultant penalty setting up a line out on the visitor’s 22 which was rapidly mauled over the line by the Tenby pack with Roberts scoring again.

Brindley, struggling with the breeze, was unable to add the extras on this occasion.

Inconsistency from Tenby allowed Loughor to get a foothold in the game and they started to get their game flowing as they worked the ball through some phases and eventually worked the ball out to their wing who crossed out wide on the left for their opening try which went unconverted.

Tenby, having weathered this period of pressure from the visitors, regained their dominance in the final quarter through the pack and in particular their dominant scrum.

The Seasisders remained patient and from another scrum on the 5 metre line they worked the ball out through the back line with fly half Gwion Jones looping round and dotting down for the all important bonus point try which was converted by Brindley to give Tenby a 24-5 victory.

Man of the match was Jake Roberts.

Coaches Jon Evans and Andy Barlow all in all will have been pleased with the result and the bonus point but with stronger opposition to come during the campaign they will want to see the team tighten up and complete more opportunities as well as a much reduced penalty count.

Forwards coach Ossie Boswell will be very pleased with the Tenby set pieces, especially the scrum and the dominant work throughout the game by the starting front row continuing when replaced by props Frankie Boyd and Rob Clark who were joined by veteran flanker Nick Guymer.

Tenby United fielded: Max Brindley, Jack Gooding, Cam Broadhurst, Toby Smith, Oakley Milton, Gwion Jones, Matt Morgan, Ethan Morgan, Dan Allen, Rob Luly, Tom Barrass, Luke Dedman (c), Jake Roberts, Dan Colley, Jack Broadhurst.

Replacements: Nick Guymer, Rob Clark, Frankie Boyd, Will Swales, Jimmy Davies.