Tenby United 56 pts. Tumble 35

Unusually, Saturday’s visitors to Heywood Lane, Tumble RFC, have virtually a mirror image of last week’s visitors Pontyberem, in terms of recent games against Tenby United, along with where their record, in terms of leagues, has unfolded.

Tenby had two very comfortable victories in their promotion year, while Tumble were relegated, and as with Pontyberem, they gained promotion back into Division Two, only taking a season more to gain it, and are currently sitting in fifth place in the league, with Tenby holding on comfortably to third.

Showing only one change from last week’s victorious team, with Turbo back out at sea, Tenby United took less than five minutes to let the opposition and supporters know that they were still in try-fest mode, with Greg Lees Griffiths going over for the first try, which went unconverted.

Maintaining the momentum, and aided by some weak visitors’ defending, livewire flanker Andrew Cooke just about sneaked over wide out to double the score to 10-0.

The pace of the game and scoring trend slowed down during the next 10 minutes, with only Toby Smith adding to the score with a penalty, which was followed by Tumble getting in on the act, with Steve Hewitt breaking through the Tenby defence to release Gareth Bowen, who went over for a try, which was converted by centre Leighton McKenna, closing the score to 13-7.

Into the second quarter, Tenby picked up the pace, with scrum-half Will Crockford going over for yet another unconverted try, which was followed by the fourth, and important bonus point scoring try, by Toby Smith, who, as he had scored it, decided to convert it and a 25-7 lead, both scores again helped by the fragilities of the Tumble defence being cruelly exposed.

The final 10 minutes of the first half were drifting to a close, when Tumble decided to take Tenby on at forward and narrowed the score to 25-14, with their hooker Rhys Lewis being driven over for a try, again converted by Leighton McKenna, to give them some hope of rescuing the game in the second half.

Unfortunately, this was not to be, as initially their defence was breached again, with Will Crockford going over for his second try of the afternoon, pushing the score to 30-14.

The coaches decided it was time for some personnel changes at this point and two-try Will Crockford was replaced by Kieran Machin, Jack Guerreiro replaced Mark Heywood and in the pack, Mike Davis came on for Alex Thomas.

Undeterred by this latest score, the visitors dug deep and their forwards dominated the next attacking phase, with prop James Stephens crashing over from a lineout for a try, again converted by Leighton McKenna, just about keeping them within touching distance of free-flowing Tenby at 30-21.

Sensing that they had not really got the game safe, Tenby went on the attack from a wayward kick by Tumble, changing up a gear with fullback Jonny Morgan being next to cross the whitewash for a try he converted, to be quickly followed by another long range effort by winger Jordan Asparassa, again converted by Morgan, taking the score out to a more comfortable 44-21.

The pattern of Tenby scoring, followed by Tumble scoring, was now well and truly broken, a point that was hammered home when second row Luke Dedman got in on the scoring with a try, to which Jonny Morgan added the extras, and a healthy 51-21 lead.

Clearing their bench, prop Rob Luly and hooker Dan Allen took to the field, replacing Ethan Morgan and Joe Poole.

Realistically, with only the four-try bonus point available to Tumble, they got their act together and achieved it with Owain Davies going over for Stephen Hewitt to add the extras, which was quickly followed by try number five for Nathan Willard, again Hewitt adding the extras to make it a 51-35 game.

Snatching back the initiative, virtually at the end of the game, and with the visitors’ defence now tiring badly, Tenby created an opportunity for hard-working Andrew Cooke to score his second try of the afternoon, with the final match score ending at 56-35.

With a third game on the trot ending in the 50s, Tenby are now riding high in terms of confidence and momentum, with this latest home win taking them to the top of the division, with previous leaders Pontarddulais having a blank week and second-placed Hendy getting turned over by Mumbles.

With next Saturday a blank week, Tenby can concentrate on what needs to be done to finish the first half of the league programme on December 17 with a victory away at Carmarthen Athletic.

Tenby United would like to thank Dave Lewis, Chris Hughes and Yobbler for their match and ball sponsorship, as well as Heywood’s Butchers for man-of-the-match sponsorship

Tenby fielded: Jonny Morgan, Greg Lees Griffiths, Mark Heywood (Jack Guerreiro), Scott James, Jordan Asparassa, Toby Smith, Will Crockford (Kieran Machin), Dan McDermott, Joe Poole (Dan Allen), Ethan Morgan (Rob Luly), Luke Dedman, Alex Thomas (Mike Davis), Andrew Cooke, Barry Parsons, Luke Hansford.