Tenby United 15 pts. Gowerton 9

With the rain sheeting down a little more than it had been doing all morning, Gowerton, who arrived at Heywood Lane in second place in division one west, kicked off low and hard towards the scoreboard end, with the biting wind in their favour. They were no doubt hoping that the weather would relent somewhat and the pitch would not cut up as much as it had during the warm up by both teams.

Despite having to endure an early bout of pressure and aggressive taking out of players at the breakdown area, Tenby countered with a huge clearing kick by Jonny Morgan, eagerly chased by wing Jordan Asparassa, which pinned Gowerton deep in their 22 and they maintained the pressure, with Craig Barnett, Jonny Morgan, Yanik Parker, Pat Roberts, Jordan Asparassa, Matthew Morgan, Jack Guerreiro and the Tenby back row all heavily involved.

With just under 10 minutes played, Tenby countered from deep in their half, with Craig Barnett fielding a high up and under from number 10 King and, cleverly avoiding a chasing Gowerton tackle, set off on a run, linking with Jordan Asparassa, Yanik Parker, Pat Roberts and Jack Guerreiro, who looped around in support to take the pass off Yanik Parker to cross for a great team try and a deserved 5-0 lead.

Countering this early reverse, the visitors tore into Tenby, who were tested to the full defensively as Gowerton continued to up the pace and aggression, determined to address this early setback with a series of high kick and chase tactics from deep or combined attacks close to the line, and it was from one of these moves that their first score came as the entire United threequarter line had drifted offside and from the resulting penalty, Josh Hamer reduced the lead to 5-3.

The timing of their runs and the running lines being used were obviously honed on the training paddock, with their big forwards lining-up to be the next exocet missile to be launched, but the red and black defensive wall held firm.

The Gowerton score was soon added to, though, when United prop Rob Clarke instinctively played a ball knocked-on by Matthew Morgan while in front of him and Hamer duly added the extra points from the penalty to put his side in the lead at 6-5.

Playmaker Jonny Morgan had been injured earlier in the game and was hovering out on the wing hoping that whatever his injury was, he might be able to run it off, but that was not to be as he limped off, with Oliver Wingfield trotting onto the field and Tenby having to reshuffle their three-quarters, with Jack Guerreiro slotting into 10, Yanick Parker moving into centre and Oliver Wingfield taking the vacated wing position.

For a reason, undetected from the sidelines, but howled for by the visiting Gowerton supporters, referee Dylan Llyr Jones, who had travelled down from Pwllheli in the morning, awarded yet another penalty to the visitors and Josh Hamer increased his tally to three successful kicks, with the help of the upright, extending the lead to 9-5.

Tenby’s luck was certainly at a low ebb with the number of penalties being conceded and this was added to when prop Rob Luly also got injured, suffering a broken nose and being replaced off the bench by Ethan Morgan, who was making his 52nd appearance in the red and black, with an apology from the report writer that his 50th appearance, and membership of the 50 club, was not mentioned in the recent Kidwelly match.

It was undoubtedly the visitors’ best spell of the match so far, with incessant pressure on the Tenby line, but the home defence stood firm, with their tried and trusted line speed thwarting any attempt made to cross the whitewash.

This resilience was added to with a couple of slices of luck as fullback Craig Barnett had his clearance kick charged down and fortunately saw the ricochet end up crossing the deadball line.

Their luck continued as yet another Gowerton attack was halted, with referee Jones taking play back for a marginally high tackle offence by Andrew Cooke, but this time Hamer was short of the target and Tenby held on as half-time came, with both teams trotting off for the shelter of the changing rooms, with the United perhaps fortunate not to have had their line crossed in a tense closing 10 minutes.

The message from coaches Cone and Mogs at the interval obviously had the desired effect on the team as, despite the wet, cold and windy conditions, the start of the second half saw them go into attack mode, pressurising the visitors into giving away a penalty. Referee Jones improved this for Tenby by adding an additional 10 metres as Gowerton questioned his decision and it was further improved with a second additional 10 metres for ‘back chat’, giving Craig Barnett an easier task, which he gratefully accepted, slotting his kick between the uprights and making it a one point game at 9-8 to the visitors.

Still angry at this score, the Gowerton team went through several phases of play where their ball-handling and decision-making went awry and Tenby capitalised on this by stringing together a series of threatening moves, with Luke Hansford, Craig Barnett, Andrew Cooke, Luke Dedman, Patrick Roberts and Roy Osborn all involved, ending with replacement Oliver Wingfield slipping the ball to Patrick Roberts (who was playing his 50th game for the Seasiders) to cross the Gowerton line unopposed.

Barnett stroked over the conversion, taking Tenby into the lead at 15-9, much to the annoyance of the visitors’ coaching team, who really laid into their players under the sticks during the conversion, which was added to by the very noisy and vocal visiting supporters from various sections of the ground.

Tenby were obviously intent on adding to their lead and from a series of rolling mauls, following clean lineout takes by Luke Dedman, Roy Osborn and Jack Clancy, they became camped on the Gowerton line, but their pressure came to nothing, with the visitors determined not to concede another try.

The domination of the game slowly started favouring the visitors who had now become camped deep in the Tenby 22, with fortunately bouts of individual white line fever taking over as they strove to regain the lead, when passing or slipping the ball to a supporting player would have been the better option.

Tenby reinforced their pack with the hard-working pair of Jack Clancy and Andrew Cooke being replaced by Mike Davis and Barry Parsons. The new players, along with their 13 team-mates, were really being put under the cosh as a real dog fight was now taking.

And like the previous week against Penclawdd, Tenby were on the defensive against a continual series of attacks from Gowerton, but from recollection, there were no tackles missed as the clock ticked on, with time running out for the visitors.

The final player change saw Joe Poole joining the ranks to replace the hard-grafting Kyle Hamer.

A series of scrums on the Tenby line offered the visitors the platform to launch attack after attack, but try as they might, switching from attacking from the back of the scrum to going for a push-over try, it yielded nothing as the resolute home defence were intent on keeping them at bay and a clean tries against sheet, as well as extending their winning run to five games on the bounce.

Tempers were getting frayed and a minor scuffle saw Luke Dedman (never one to take a backward step) and his opposite number both sent to the naughty step by referee Jones, who seemed to have become very lenient at breakdown time, as well as missing numerous offside infringements.

Urged on by both sets of coaching staff, the players kept their concentration, with the Tenby defence coming out on top and, despite not being able to break out of their 22 - as well as losing skipper Luke Hansford with what looked a serious ankle injury (with Cookie returning to the fray as a replacement) - they just about retained their red and black solid defensive line until the final whistle.

All players were jubilant with the result they had worked their socks off to achieve, clearly shown in the way they somehow managed to drag up the energy from their tired bodies to leap and punch the bitterly cold January air in delight, while a despondent Gowerton side trooped off thankful that they at least went away with a losing bonus point.

Momentum is a great asset to have as a team; it can’t be coached, but if you have it, and Tenby United have it in spades at the moment, and believe in yourself, you can achieve anything.

On Saturday, the team and coaching staff dug deep, spurred on by their faithful and loyal supporters, and somewhat against the odds in a classic dog fight of a match, achieved a tremendous result.

They travel north tomorrow (Saturday) to take on District H rivals Aberystwyth, coming off a 24-22 loss down at Gorseinon, which pushed them down to eighth in the table, having played one game less than Tenby, on 31 points, while the United have risen to sixth in the table on 33 points.

Trying to identify a man-of-the-match would have been difficult, as it was with the Scarlets on Friday night against Bath, as all 22 Seasiders showed grit and determination, aided by skill, solid organisation in defence and fitness, to achieve the result, and Cone and Mogs set off for the club, and the odd beer or two, feeling very proud of what had been achieved and hoping that the injuries picked up during the encounter were not too serious. It was eventually deemed that Craig Barnett would receive the man-of-match award, but all agreed it could have gone to any of the 22, or even all the 22.

Tenby United would like to thank Tenby Tourers for their continued main club sponsorship, as well as Kiln Park, FBM, Coastal Cottages and Molson Coors for their on-going sponsorship and Heywood’s Butchers for their continued man-of-the-match award - all very much appreciated. In addition, thanks go to all the loyal supporters who turned up at Heywood Lane in atrocious conditions when it would have been a warmer option to have stayed at home, or go down the local to watch the myriad of European rugby matches on TV - many thanks to you all and hope you enjoyed watching your team dig deep and hold on for a splendid victory.

The fixture list and the advent of the Six Nations means that the next home game against Llangennech is not until February 17, that being the only home fixture in the month of February, so let’s hope the weather takes a turn for the better by then.

Tenby fielded: Craig Barnett, Yanik Parker, Pat Roberts, Jack Guerreiro, Jordan Asparassa, Jonny Morgan (Oliver Wingfield), Matthew Morgan, Rob Luly (Ethan Morgan), Kyle Hamer (Joe Poole), Rob Clarke, Luke Dedman, Jack Clancy (Mike Davis), Luke Hansford, Roy Osborn, Andrew Cooke (Barry Parsons).