Tenby United 15 pts.

Crymych 20

It was another losing bonus point that GD Harries sponsored Tenby United had to settle for in reward for their hard work again last Saturday as they were just edged out in a typical local derby game at Heywood Lane.

The Seasiders started well, but couldn’t seem to break the visitors’ defence down, despite strong running from skipper and man-of-the-match Luke Hansford, Dan Colley and Rob Weston.

The two sides went at each other for the first quarter and it was end-to-end stuff, with the United looking dangerous through the back line and Crymych edging the forward battle due to the stuttering Seasiders’ lineout and scrummage.

It took 17 minutes before deadlock was eventually broken as Crymych fullback Gavin Thomas crossed the line in the corner after the ball went through the hands of the threequarters to set up the nippy fullback to score.

Scrum-half Luke Rogers added the conversion, giving the Preseli outfit the narrow lead.

Two minutes later, the Seasiders closed the gap slightly through a monster of a penalty kick from centre Toby Smith after some tremendous work in the loose from Hansford and Co saw Crymych not releasing.

Rogers extended the lead again on the half-hour mark with a penalty goal and then an offence from second row Andrew Howells was deemed worthy of a yellow card from referee Neil Jones, meaning that the Seasiders had a good opportunity to close the gap again before half-time with the advantage of an extra man, but Crymych tightened their defence and managed to prevent them from doing so and held their lead of 10 points to the United’ three at half-time.

Soon after the oranges, Rogers landed another penalty to give his side a 10-point lead, before some gritty work from the home side helped young outside-half Aaron James score a nice try on his debut game for the firsts since returning from Neyland a few weeks ago. The conversion skimmed the wrong side of the upright, but James’s try had narrowed the deficit once again and put the Seasiders back in the game only five points behind with half-an-hour to go.

Gethyn Dennis’s ensuing try for Crymych, converted by Rogers, however, meant that the Seasiders were now 12 points behind.

This didn’t panic the players, though, as they have a knack for getting themselves back into games through their never-give-up attitude and, after some great plays and threatening their guests’ try line several times, second rower Luke Dedman crossed the line for the score on his season’s debut and with Smith adding the extra two points, the United were back within five points of Crymych with five minutes left on the clock.

Tenby went all out to score again, but they just couldn’t manage to break the Crymych defence and on the final whistle they were forced to settle for another losing bonus point for their efforts.

The Seasiders took plenty of positives from the game and despite the league table looking bad, they haven’t hit the panic button yet and they know what needs working on to improve their grey areas and take confidence from the fact that they’ve managed 13 tries from three games, which has given them four vital bonus points and shows them that they are still a dangerous outfit and with a game in hand.

United will be looking to bring home the win at last tomorrow (Saturday) when they travel to Gorseinon for the 2.30 pm kick off.

Please travel to Gorseinon to support the boys in what is always a great game to watch whenever the two sides clash.

Tenby United fielded: Dan Colley, Mark Heywood, Jack Guerreiro, Toby Smith, Greg Lees Griffiths, Aaron James (Jordan Asparassa), Rob Weston, Luke Hansford (capt), Moritz Neumann, Andrew Cooke, Luke Dedman, Rob Luly (Ethan Morgan), Dan Allen (Nicky Guymer), Rob Clark, Marcu Reed, Nathan Lowe.

Footnote: Tenby Utd are looking for someone to take over the match reports for all of the 1st XV games, so anyone interested is asked to contact chairman of rugby and current match report writer Pete ‘Toe’ James on 07881908942.

The club are also looking for someone to film the games. All video equipment is supplied. If interested, please call Peter on the above number.

Pics. Susan McKehon