Tenby United 25 pts Bluestone Barbarians 24

Following the trend set by Pembroke a couple of weeks ago, Tenby United played a 2nd XV game for the first time this season and against the same opposition - Bluestone Barbarians and, as with the Pembroke game, it was a see-saw encounter, with the lead changing hands seven times, with Tenby being in the lead when it mattered - when referee Mathew Evans blew his whistle for full-time.

As to be expected when you have a side that doesn’t play regularly up against a side that was thrown together on the night, and this was further impacted with both camps changing players at regular intervals as the match progressed, there was no pattern to the game and with Tenby totally dominating the set-piece, any offence that ended in a scrum spelt danger for Bluestone.

But they stuck to their task manfully and, although Tenby went into a 10-0 lead with tries by Rob Luly and Greg Lees-Griffiths, the Barbarians, playing some enterprising rugby, clawed their way back into the game with a splendid try by the impressive Laurence Hedlan right on the stroke of half-time to close the scores to 10-5.

With new players constantly being brought onto the field it was nearly impossible, to identify who was playing where and marking who and taking advantage of the uncertainty, Laurence Hedlan sliced through a retreating Tenby defence to score his second try, which was converted, and Bluestone crept into a 12-10 lead.

Tenby responded almost immediately, with Nick Drewet charging over the line for an unconverted try, which was immediately countered by Ian Derbyshire for Bluestone.

With the forwards getting more into the act for Tenby, it was burly prop Geoff Martin who barged his way across the line for try number seven of the night and a 20-17 lead.

Was this the time for Bluestone to throw in the towel? No way, and a quick tap and go from 30 metres out ended with Bluestone scoring their fourth try, which was splendidly converted from wide out and regaining the lead at 24-20.

With time running out Tenby were awarded a penalty try, which, with the scrums collapsing regularly all night, was not a surprise, but with the conversion missed (for the fifth time during the night, so the kicker will remain anonymous…!) the score was only 25-24 and with the final move of the game, the very impressive Laurence Hedlan ran the length of the field, only to be bundled into touch inches from the line.

With in excess of 30 players turning up and wanting to play, quite an achievement by Jay Williams who was responsible for this, Tenby will now attempt to obtain some additional friendly fixtures as it attempts to recreate a 2nd XV which has not functioned regularly for the last couple of seasons and next year get back into competitive league rugby.