Tenby United 13 pts. Gorseinon 6

Forced to make a late change, with centre Craig Barnett having to cry off through work commitments, Tenby Tourers sponsored Tenby United surprisingly saw bench replacement and flanker Patrick Roberts stepping into his place at centre (and playing a blinder on his 47th outing for the club), giving the Gorseinon defence plenty to think about. With second row and man-of-the-match Jack Clancy also putting himself about with a series of powerful runs, the Gorseinon defence was put to the test all afternoon.

It was also great to see club stalwart Dan Colley taking his place on the wing and playing his 147th game and Wyndham Williams taking Patrick’s place on the bench for his 188th time in the red and black of Tenby United.

Unbeaten on the road since September 23, Gorseinon arrived at Heywood Lane confident that they would come away with the necessary league points to maintain their mid-table position, but were confronted by a Tenby side determined to address their run of narrow defeats and come away with a win.

The pressure applied by the home side from the kick-off soon paid dividends as within two minutes, good work by Jack Clancy, Luke Dedman and Roy Osborn established a platform from which Matthew Morgan and Jonathan Rogers enabled Jack Guerreiro to break through an attempted tackle to score an unconverted try, giving Tenby the comfort of an early 5-0 lead.

Encouraged by this early success, the United kept up the pressure, but it was the visitors who scored next, with offside being spotted by referee Hale allowing scrum-half Jack Gronow to stroke the ball between the uprights, cutting the lead to 5-3.

Spurred on by this reverse, Tenby increased the pace of the game and within five minutes had extended their lead to 10-3, when some good ball winning skills by the lively back row of Osborn, Andrew Cook and Barry Parsons resulted in a clever Rogers cross kick finding skipper Johnny Morgan lurking with real intent and able to score a try. Rogers was again unable to convert.

The remainder of the half resulted in a stalemate, with both attacks being contained by sound defence by the opposition, and in Tenby’s case, well marshalled by Jonny Morgan, with opportunities to add to the score kept to a minimum and the scoreboard operators, apart from getting soaking wet, were only troubled once, as Jack Gronow was successful with his second penalty, closing the scores to 10-6.

Tenby failed to capitalise on any chances created and were lucky that regular bouts of ill-discipline, too many for comfort, were not capitalised on by the opposition.

The second half was very much the same as the first, with opportunities even fewer as the torrential rain had now become a determining factor with regard to the ball handling and pots at goal via drop goal attempts seemed to be the favoured scoring option.

As the conditions deteriorated, the game turned into a very scrappy affair, with both sides pinned between the 22s, and while they restricted Gorseinon to nil, the Tenby score moved on as Jonathan Rogers slotted a penalty in the final five minutes, increasing his total to 346 points for the club and extending the lead to 13-6, allowing his side, albeit soaking wet, to trot off Heywood Lane with a much-needed four league points… and at last, a long time coming home win.

Coach Cone James was well pleased with the performance and delighted that the team stuck to the agreed game plan, well executed by Jonathan Rogers on permit from Narberth, which resulted in everybody on the field knowing exactly what was required of them and, despite the abject performance of the Welsh team later in the day, enjoyed the beer down at the clubhouse, as it is a well known fact that the beer tastes far more palatable with a W under the belt.

With a week’s rest, the coaching team can get the side prepared for their long-awaited cup tie down at Milford on Saturday, December 2, with a noon kick-off, as well as for the week later, away to fellow promotion side Tycroes.

Tenby fielded: Jonny Morgan, Moritz Neumann, Jack Guerreiro, Pat Roberts, Dan Colley, Jonathan Rogers, Matthew Morgan, Rob Clarke, Kyle Hamer (Joe Poole), Lewis Davies, Jack Clancy, Luke Dedman (Mike Davis), Barry Parsons, Andrew Cooke, Roy Osborn

Replacements - Ethan Morgan, Wyndham Williams, Oliver Wingfield.