Tenby United 15 pts. Llangennech 25

The young Tenby United squad battled hard and showed huge improvement again as they ran another team from the top end of the table close last Saturday when the GD Harries & Sons sponsored outfit welcomed Llangennech to Heywood Lane in Division One West.

After running the Llanelli side close in their first game of the season and coming away from Llangennech narrowly losing that game by 39 points to 36, the Seasiders knew they had nothing to fear, especially at home in front of their loyal band of supporters.

With stand-in skipper Harry Bolton being forced to join club captain Luke Hansford and the many other key players on the injury list, it was hard running number eight Rob Weston who wore the captain’s armband and he led from the front all day, with two big United players, Jason Ronowitz and Roy Osborn, returning to join him in the back row after a long spell away from the game due to work commitments, giving the still depleted Tenby United squad a much-needed boost, and that they certainly did, with the three back rowers all having superb games in attack and in defence and giving their side the go forward that they have lacked in recent weeks.

Winning the toss and confident in his side’s fitness and ‘play to the end’ attitude, skipper Weston opted to play into the gale force winds and worsening rain for the first half and the Seasiders knew that they would have to work extremely hard in defence if they were going to contain the confident Llangennech side.

Despite hard work in defence from the home side, Llangennech played the elements well and former Scarlets outside-half Ceirion Thomas intelligently used his boot, and the wind, to put his side in the right areas. Their pack also worked hard to earn themselves three early tries and a 15-nil lead within the first 20 minutes, and it looked set to be a long afternoon for the United.

Llangennech’s first try came from a well-worked driving five-metre lineout, with loose-head prop Jamie Hughes emerging from the pile of bodies to claim the unconverted touchdown.

It was fly-half Thomas who darted over for the next score after taking a quick penalty tap and catching the Seasiders’ defence napping.

He failed to convert his try, but still gave the visitors a 10-nil lead after 15 minutes of play.

The third of the Llangennech tries came right on the 20-minute mark when the threequarters managed to move the ball wide despite the conditions and speedy winger Jordan Dunne squeezed in at the corner for the score which, again, went un converted.

Although they were 15 points to nil down, the Tenby side never looked like giving up and played some great attacking rugby of their own and defended well for the most part too.

As the first half entered its final few minutes, things started looking up for the Seasiders and a well-practised driving lineout move straight out of head coach Chris ‘Cone’ James’s book of tricks gave the visiting pack of forwards no chance of defending and the home pack smashed them over their line for Ronowitz to score the well-deserved try.

It went unconverted, but coupled with the immediate sending off of Llangennech second row Phil White, who was given a straight red card for dangerous use of the knee followed by a punch thrown, gave the home side a boost in confidence with only five minutes to go before going into Mo’s half-time oranges.

Despite the boost in confidence and the home side defending well for long periods, Llangennech scrum-half Ifan Beynon Thomas managed to evade capture as a would-be defender was caught napping yet again and a quick tap penalty foxed the United as Thomas scurried in for the try, which Ceirion Thomas converted, to give the visitors a half-time lead of 22 points five.

The decision to go with the wind in the second half proved to be the correct choice from Weston and his confidence in his side’s ability to get themselves back into games also proved to be right, too, as right from the restart the game swung the Seasiders’ way and they were the dominant team for much of the half, with bullocking runs from all three back rowers, Osborn, Ronowitz and Weston, along with second rowers Dedman and Read and the front row of Luly, Bonser and Payne all making a nuisance of themselves and gaining the hard yards for their team.

The visitors were finding the extra man that the Seasiders had due to their first half red card hard to cope with and it wasn’t long before the advantage paid dividends and, when Llangennech were awarded a scrum on their own five-metre line the Seasiders’ ‘eight’ put the shove on and went straight through the visitors’ pack as though they weren’t even there, stealing the ball against the head and allowing number eight Weston to ground the ball for the try, which Thomas Lewis converted to close the gap to 10 points.

A further penalty from Lewis reduced the gap to seven points and the Seasiders looked good value for a losing bonus point at the very least and were now in a position to sneak a win, but, despite the United playing the better rugby and having the extra man, they weren’t quite able to get over their opponents’ line and were dealt a cruel blow when Ceirion Thomas landed a late Llangennech penalty to edge his side’s lead back to 10 points, completely against the run of play, and taking the bonus point away from the Seasiders in the process.

Llangennech managed to hold on to the lead, despite constant pressure from the home side, and eventually ran out winners by 25 points to 15.

Although it was another defeat, the Seasiders showed massive improvements and took a lot of positives out of the game.

With no game this weekend, the next outing for the United will be away at Kidwelly on Saturday, December 19, and with key players sure to be back from injury and with their recent improvements, they will be looking to get their season on track before the Christmas break.

Supporters are asked to go along to Kidwelly to cheer the boys on as they look to upset one of the top two sides.

Tenby United fielded: Luke Conbeer, Jordan Asparassa, Jack Guerreiro, Aaron James, Joe Criddle, Tom Lewis, Dan Thomas, Rob Weston (capt), Jason Ronowitz, Roy Osborn, Marcus Read, Rob Luly (Lyndon Jones), Wes Bonser, Scott Payne, Jay Williams, Dan Allen, Nathan Lowe, Ieuan Rowell