Whitland 10 pts. Tenby United 13

Following on from last Saturday’s improved performance against Gowerton, G. D. Harries sponsored Tenby United, travelled to Parc Llwyn Ty Gwyn on Wednesday evening to take on Whitland in the semi-final of the JT Auto Services Haverfordwest sponsored Pembrokeshire Cup with a side showing nine changes from the game on the weekend.

It was a still evening, with little or no wind, conditions were perfect and with a cricket match going on in the background, it was difficult to believe we are still playing rugby in mid May.

Whitland kicked off and within minutes lost Will Davies, who was replaced by Scott Newton, and as they tried to reorganise, Jordan Asparassa set off on one of his mazy runs, linking with Rob Weston, who quickly slipped the ball to Rob Clarke, who in turn linked with Scott James, who cleverly weaved his way through a disorganised home defence for the opening try of the game , which he converted for a 7-0 lead.

Whitland were obviously taken aback by this initial early score and were hit by a treble whammy as the restart saw their winger in front of the ball and chopsing to the referee, disputing the call, gave Tenby an extra 10 metres As play progressed, an intervention by the linesman ended with prop Ryan Rees getting yellow-carded and it all ended with a penalty by Scott James extending the score to 10-0.

Whitland had an opportunity to close the gap, but a long-range penalty by Nico Setaro hit the upright and went wide.

Things went from bad to worse for Whitland when close to half-time, experienced campaigner Dai Ebsworth was red carded for use of the elbow when fending off Scott James.

The first 20 minutes of the second half was very much tit for tat rugby, with neither side threatening to score as the defences held firm, but following a period of Whitland pressure, where the winger dropped the ball as he tried to touch down, Ross Newton countered that mistake going over for a try, superbly converted by Setaro, narrowing the scores to 10-7.

Not to be outdone, Tenby went straight on the attack and a tremendous jinking run by Scott James took play from the Tenby 22 to the Whitland five-metre line and, whereas the referee thought the attack had been stopped with a player not being able to ground the ball and awarded the put into the scrum to Tenby, a Whitland player went into back-chat mode aimed at the referee and from the penalty awarded, Scott James slotted another three points and 13-7.

Although down to 14 men, Whitland dug deep and earned a penalty, which Setaro goaled to close the score to 13-10, but, although they pressed for another score, the Tenby defence, which had held firm all evening, maintained the necessary grip on the Whitland attack and with the referee blowing for full-time, they celebrated a fine victory and a place in the final against Crymych next Wednesday (May 25) at Haverfordwest, as well as gaining their first win in what has been a very trying season.