Tenby (31) 59 Maesteg Celtic (10) 24 - With the weather a complete change from the previous week, where a much changed and young side scraped home playing down at Burry Port 7-5 in continuous rain, fbm sponsored Tenby United turned on the style against visitors Maesteg Celtic, running in for nine tries, while the large crowd watched and cheered them on in brilliant sunshine.

As with last week’s opponents, Maesteg Celtic had gained promotion from Division 3 in the region they play in last season, and will face the challenges of Division 2 rugby this season and had asked for the fixture as they, and Tenby, both needed to test of their strengths with new recruits and combinations, with the league season getting underway on September 1st.

Tenby started with a very young side, bolstered with a hard core of last seasons regulars, and took to the field intent on getting a return from the hard pre-season work they had put in under new and returning coach Gareth Thomas and his hard working coaching team.

For the first ten minutes or so Maesteg were heavily involved in defensive duties as the home side pinned them down in their own 22 and it came as no surprise to see livewire fullback Jason Asparassa romp over wide out for try number one and an early 5-0 lead, just what the young side needed.

This was followed with Tenby seizing on a dropped pass from a Maesteg Celtic side under pressure, ending with a kick and chase and some neat dribbling skills and change of direction from Dan Wainwright who dived on the rolling ball for try number 2. With Lloyd Thomas slotting the conversion, Tenby had deservedly gone into a 12-0 lead.

Responding to this early pressure the visitors stepped up the pace and were fortunate when it appeared they had infringed at the breakdown, impeding scrum half Ben Pugh as he waited for the ball to emerge, but there was no whistle from referee Matthew Evans and Oliver Petty seized on the advantage and went over for their initial try, narrowing the lead to 12-5.

With about thirty minutes on the clock the visitors added to their opening score when following some slick inter-passing amongst the forwards, Alex Jones crossed the whitewash reducing the lead to 12-10. Stepping up a gear, after what seemed a lengthy period of defensive duties, Tenby responded by scoring two more tries within a couple of minutes, unusually both by props, with Huw Evans and Rob Luly crossing the line in support of some slick passing and backing up ending with an usual occurrence of props scoring tries, one after the other.

No disrespect intended to the front row union here. With Lloyd Thomas on target with the conversions the lead had slid out to a deserved 26-10.

Closing the half on a high, a bout of speedy breaks and well timed passing amongst the three quarters ended with Jason Asparassa going over for his second try of the afternoon and with Lloyd Thomas adding the extras, closed the half at 33-10 to the home side.

With a number of half time player changes by both sides the new combinations took some time to settle and it was Maesteg who troubled the scoreboard operators first when their well rehearsed and much used rolling maul payed dividends with prop Duplese maintaining the prop scoring trend, by emerging from a pile of bodies and claiming a try. With Wayne Rodgers adding the conversion the score was now 33-17.

Buoyed by this score the visitors threatened to cross the line again but a resolute home defence held firm and a superb break by Harry Owen was capitalised on by Lloyd Thomas who was in support sliding over for an excellent try. With the two points added by Thomas, Tenby extended their lead to 40-17.

With a “run at every opportunity” the flavour of the day as the half progressed, both Aaron James and Patrick Roberts caught the eye along with Lloyd Thomas, Roy Osborne and Jason Ronowitz and the continuous pressure being applied by a rampant Tenby side it eventually paid dividends with Roy Osborne creating an opportunity for Patrick Roberts to score and with Thomas on target again with the conversion the score was extended to 47-17.

With the visitors feeling the pace, with tackles now being missed, it was live wire scrum half Ben Pugh who capitalised on some slack defending around the breakdown by shooting through a gap in the visitors stretched defence to cross for try number eight, to which Thomas added the extras and a very healthy 54-17 lead.

With both coaches using the opportunity the draft new players in as the game progressed and fatigue set in it was Tenby that rounded of their scoring for the afternoon with the impressive Jason Ronowitz finishing off a length of the field move wide out and taking Tenby to a 59-17 lead.

Not to be outdone however, Maesteg kept on battling right to the end and with the last piece of action for the afternoon, and using what appeared to be their only worthwhile attacking option, crossed the whitewash from another rolling maul and with Rodgers adding the extras brought the game to a close with Tenby running out well deserved 59-24 winners.

Thanks go to Matthew Evans for refereeing the match and hope he benefited from this pre-season run out as well as to Toe, Leila and helpers for making sure that the supporters, during and after the match, and players (after the match) were well fed and “watered”. Finally thanks also go to Jonathan Boot and Hen for presenting a superb looking pitch on which to open the home account.

Coach Gareth Thomas and his coaching team can be well proud of this performance, which reflected the hard work put in on the training paddock and down on the beach during July and August, although there will be areas to work on this week as they prepare for the tough first league game up at Crymych on Saturday, which will be a double header with the Pembrokeshire Cup First Round game also to be decided.

Following this performance, which included 10 regulars from last season in the squad along with 12 newcomers, there will be some interesting debates when it comes to team selection on Thursday, with quite a few players taking advantage of displaying their talents and work rate during what was an entertaining and enlightening eighty minutes.

Tenby starting line-up: Jordan Asparassa, Ashley Murdoch, Aaron James, Dan Wainwright, Jack Tucker, Lloyd Thomas, Ben Pugh, Huw Evans, Matt Done, Rob Luly, Luke Dedman, Charlie Patching, Jack Broadhurst, Roy Osborne, Harry Owen.

(Changes during match): Pat Roberts, Geraint Powell, Michael Davies, Jason Ronowitz, Ollie Wingfield, Ethan Morgan and Will Swales.