Tenby United 38 pts. Kidwelly 69

G. D. Harries & Sons sponsored Tenby United welcomed a very strong Kidwelly side to Heywood Lane last Saturday and early errors in defence meant they would be chasing the game all afternoon.

The Seasiders have been behind in games before and trusting in their excellent fitness and conditioning has allowed them the luxury of getting back into them, but, they were taught a stern lesson in that department by a slick and well-drilled Kidwelly, who must already have their sights on the league title.

Kidwelly managed no less that 11 tries on the day, with five of them coming in the first half via the hands of their dangerous back division, which put them well adrift of a Tenby side who are themselves the ones usually famed for their expansive style of play.

The Carmarthenshire outfit’s first half scores were all virtually carbon copies of each other, with centre Declan Knoxx, winger Shaun Pearce and lock Dan Morris all crossing for tries which were all converted from wide out by fullback Gareth Rees, who also grabbed a brace of self-converted tries himself in the opening 40 minutes.

It wasn’t a case of the United turning into a bad side overnight, as they also looked dangerous when they had the ball and moved it through the hands, but too many defensive errors and slack man-marking allowed Kidwelly the space they needed and they always seemed to have the extra man out in the wide open spaces of Heywood Lane’s fantastic surface.

Despite being 35-nil behind, the young Seasiders’ heads were kept up by the encouraging words of skipper Luke Hansford and their never-give-up attitude kept them going when many teams would have already given up and rolled over.

It was indeed the home side that had the last word of the first half when Hansford stole the ball at the breakdown and it was moved quickly away from contact to fly-half Ashley Sutton into the hands of powerhouse winger Mark Heywood, who was never going to be stopped from 10 yards out and crossed for the Seasiders’ first try.

Sutton converted and the half-time whistle blew with the visitors going into the oranges with a comfy 35-7 lead.

Whatever was said by the coaching duo of James and Rossiter, it seemed to work as the Seasiders came out after the interval a different team and stunned Kidwelly with three quick tries (two from Hansford and one from Asparassa) and they had indeed picked up a try bonus point of their own by the 47th minute.

The United’s skipper scored his first off the back of a powerful driving lineout which saw the Tenby pack blow their opposing eight aside as if they weren’t even there on their way to the line.

Left wing Jordan Asparassa grabbed the second after some great hands and running from the Tenby backs and a great angle from centre Moritz Neumann meant the space was created for the speedy winger to canter in for the score.

Rees slotted a penalty for the visitors, before Hansford claimed the third and bonus point earning try after catching the visitors napping with a quickly taken tapped penalty, which Sutton duly converted, and the gap on the scoreboard was now narrowed to 24-38 and the Seasiders were back in the game with half-an-hour still on the clock.

The second half of this game was even better for the spectators than the week before at Llangennech which gave them almost non-stop tries at either end of the field, but, it was also a hard lesson for the Seasiders, in that you can’t afford to give sides of this quality, in this tightly contested division, the luxury of an early lead, as they were always chasing the game, despite matching the visitors in the second half and salvaging their reputation as a dangerous and exciting side themselves.

Centre and captain Andrew Francis grabbed a hat-trick late on in the game to go with further Kidwelly tries from Pearce and fullback Dafydd Lewis, with all but two being successfully converted by Rees, to keep their side in front, despite two more tries from the Seasiders.

Sutton crossed the whitewash following a driving maul after a well-secured lineout. The United’s pack were tight and well organised as they drove their opponents back from the halfway line to just inside the 22m line, where the ball was moved wide into the hands of Neumann, who broke two tackles and offloaded to Sutton, who cantered in for a well-worked try and added the extras himself.

The final try of the day was grabbed by strong Tenby fullback Toby Smith, who crossed the line off the back of yet another superb string of phases from the slick backline, which eventually saw him unleashed thanks to quickly recycled ruck ball being moved wide and at pace. Sutton brought proceedings to a close with the conversion, giving his side 38 points to Kidwelly’s 69.

Tenby United fielded: Toby Smith, Jordan Asparassa, Greg Lees Griffiths, Moritz Neumann, Mark Heywood, Ashley Sutton, Nathan Lowe, Sam Smith, Luke Hansford (capt), Andrew Dennis, Harry Bolton, Rob Weston, Rob Luly, Dan Allen, Rob Clark. Replacements - Nicky Guymer, Ethan Morgan, Marcu Reed, Will Crockford, Dan Colley.

Pics. Susan McKehon