Carmarthen Athletic 19 pts.

Tenby United 17

GD Harries, FBM Holidays, Andrew Price, Molson Coors and Kiln Park Holiday Centre sponsored Tenby United had the best possible start when they travelled to the bottom-placed club Carmarthen Athletic on Saturday, but ended up having the worst possible finish.

When the Seasiders almost effortlessly crossed for the opening try within two minutes of the start, everyone watching thought it was going to be a long day for the home side, who hadn't registered a win all season.

The well-worked try came after the forwards turned their hosts' ball over and mounted a quick counter-attack, before powerful Tenby centre Jack Price made 30 yards into opposition territory and set young winger Jordan Asparassa on his way; he beat two defenders and cantered in underneath the posts, allowing Jonathan Rogers an easy conversion.

The next 30 minutes were played in Carmarthen territory, with the Seasiders frustratingly unable to finish off any of their attacks due to errors, which weren't helped by the very heavy pitch which didn't suit their free-flowing style of play.

As the first half edged towards the final moments, the United were forced to defend as the Athletic stole the ball at the stuttering Tenby lineout and put some good phases together and looked like scoring, but for an excellent try-saving tackle in the corner by Asparassa.

The Seasiders led by seven-nil at the interval.

It was clear from the start of the second half that Carmarthen could see that their visitors weren't able to use their usual open style to good effect in the sticky conditions and managed to drag them into a forward battle. This paid off as the frustration and indiscipline of the Tenby side played straight into their hands and, after some tight but direct and confident phases of play, the home pack edged closer to the line, allowing flanker Richard Davies to barge his way over for the try.

Shaun Curran levelled the scores with his conversion.

It was deja vu 10 minutes later as Athletic managed another carbon copy of their first score, but without the conversion, as their forwards made the yards for Davies to ground the ball over the Tenby line, giving the home team the lead by 12 points to seven.

A Rogers penalty for the Seasiders narrowed the gap on 68 minutes, before the Tenby outfit strung some excellent passes together and with just five minutes to go looked to have broken the Athletic's hearts when skipper Gareth Jones sent centre Toby Smith crashing through the home defences to score under the sticks following some fine inter-passing from the United pack.

Rogers's conversion put Tenby ahead as the game entered the last few minutes.

With the clock ticking down and the visitors in the lead again, it seemed like only a catastrophe on the visitors part or a miracle would enable the Athletic to register a deserved first win.

Then, within the final minute, a scrum on the Tenby United 22-metre line saw the ball come back easily to the scrum-half's feet and then it all went wrong for the visitors.

The ball went out to be cleared to touch and surely the final whistle to signal an ugly, but much-needed second win in a row for Tenby, but the miracle Carmarthen were looking for came about when a slight hesitation and a Seasiders handling error meant that the home side were given a lifeline in the form of a scrum on the Tenby five-metre line.

Their pack secured the ball and it was moved wide and into the hands of winger Robbie Thomas, who broke the visitors' defence and hearts as he scampered over their line for the try out wide which levelled things at 17-all, with the conversion being the last play of the day.

Corrun landed the difficult conversion to a hero's reception from his team-mates, coaches and supporters, as he had just kicked them to their first win of the season by 19 points to Tenby United's 17.

This was a game that Tenby could have and should have won and, although only managing the losing bonus point in the end, they can learn a lot from it.

Tenby United travel away to Loughor tomorrow (Saturday) in the league, with kick off at the usual time of 2.30 pm. Please come along and support the boys as they look to get the win.