On a resplendent Heywood Lane pitch cleared of the previous night’s bonfire celebrations, Tenby Tourers sponsored Tenby United trotted out on Saturday, looking to come away with something from visiting league leaders Dunvant, who, for their part, would be keen to get back to winning ways, having surprisingly suffered two recent defeats in the WRU Plate and at home against Gowerton the previous week.

With a few team changes due to unavailability and injury, it was a welcoming sight to see Patrick Roberts returning - albeit on permit - from Narberth, having shone in their heavy defeat of visitors Glyneath the previous week, only to be deemed unavailable this week due to the ‘no train no play’ policy in force at Narberth, which in Patrick’s case was down to his shift pattern at work.

With regular flanker Andrew Cooke resting an injury and starting on the bench, Patrick was expected to more than make up for the loss of Cookie’s dynamism around the park. For their part, Dunvant rang the changes from the names in the programme, with players changing position, as well as five new names appearing, accounting for a raft of alterations from the originally declared team.

Tenby kicked off and couldn’t have wished for a better start as Dunvant infringed and Ashley Sutton obliged with the awarded penalty, putting the United 3-0 up, which unfortunately only lasted minutes as Tenby were the next to be pinged by referee Boswell and Sam Evans followed the lead shown by Sutton to bring the scores level at 3-3.

Penalties were not finished there, as hooker Davies put in a very late tackle on Jonny Morgan as he hoofed the ball high towards the Dunvant line, for which he not only presented Sutton with his next three points, but was also shown the naughty step by referee Boswell.

Maintaining the scoring momentum, next into action was Alan Williams Parry, who dropped a superb goal, bringing the scores level again at 6-6 - and all of this scoring in the first eight minutes of play.

For the first time in the match, the visitors gained the upper hand and from the restart created a situation which, aided by a few missed tackles by Tenby, ended with centre Sam Crowley crossing the whitewash for a very good team try, and with Evans adding the extras, the visitors took an unexpected 13-6 lead.

Determined to regain the upper hand, Tenby were unfortunate at the restart, with the ball only travelling 9.9 metres as it was superbly taken in flight by Barry Parsons, with the referee pointing back to the halfway line for a scrum. Undeterred by this blip, Tenby were soon back on the attack, with Luke Dedman, Yannic Parker and Scott James prominent, but an unfortunate knock-on by the supporting Jonny Morgan brought the promising move to a halt.

Very slowly, Tenby were getting on top as Dunvant seemed content with their lead and were kept on their toes defensively by Matthew and Jonny Morgan, along with Jack Guerreiro, who combined well with Roy Osborne and Pat Roberts, who maintained the momentum.

Dunvant were really under the cosh as play was confined to their 22, with Scott James combining well with Moritz Neumann to pin them metres from the try line, but Tenby seemed to spurn scoring opportunities with rushed passes to supporting players, when a sympathetic pass was necessary to exploit the gap created.

Sound and well organised defence by the visitors was frustrating Tenby and within the space of five minutes they threw away three scoring chances when white line fever took over and they sacrificed opportunities by being selfish and trying to crash through what was the last line of defence, when a pass to the supporting player would have yielded a try.

Surprisingly, the culprits were experienced players who should have known better and Dunvant were let off the hook and maintained their lead when scores at that point in the game for Tenby could have totally changed what developed.

Despite ignoring these clear scoring opportunities, Tenby were in full flight and in one sweeping move at least three high tackles were put in by a very stretched Dunvant defence, ending with the referee speaking to skipper Nathan Vaughan and sending ex Narberth player Craig ‘Killer’ Hawkins to the naughty step.

From the penalty that accompanied his high tackle, Ashley Sutton closed the score to 13-9.

Changing tactics, Tenby, through Jonny Morgan and Ashley Sutton, sent Dunvant back towards their line with superb corner flag kicks, but try as they might, the Seasiders could simply not crack the visitors’ defence.

Jack Guerreiro kept the pressure on with a scintillating break in midfield, but ignored a supporting player as he tried to beat yet another defender and the move fizzled out.

Next it was Ashley Sutton who put Dunvant on the back foot as he sliced through their defence like a knife through butter, only to see his chip kick over the last defender wickedly bounce away from him as he tried to scoop the ball up.

Maintaining their attacking mode, Jonny Morgan and Moritz Neumann combined with number eight Roy Osborne to present Ashley Morgan with a drop goal attempt, but he frustratingly saw the ball drift wide of the uprights.

His attempt was explained when it turned out referee Boswell was playing advantage from a penalty infringement, which Sutton accepted and slotted over to close the gap to one point at 13-12.

Indiscipline, however, again cost Tenby the chance of going in for oranges only one point in arrears when offside just after the restart offered Evans a chance to extend the lead to 16-12, which he duly took.

With what is becoming an annoying habit, Tenby failed to collect the restart and Dunvant took full advantage and pinned the home side deep in their half. The situation was compounded when two loose clearing kicks, that went in field, allowed Dunvant fullback Sam Hawkins to look up and spot where Tenby were stretched and off he set with fellow players in support.

Tenby seemed to be unable to sort themselves out and were punished for their disjointed approach as, from a lineout, Dunvant created a rolling maul which eventually had at least 12 of their players in as it trundled over the line, with Danny Davies emerging from a pile of bodies claiming the score and taking the lead out to 21-12,

Tenby seemed unable to get back into the dominant position they held for the majority of the first half and added to this they started to fall off tackles and their scrum was now being shunted back at a great rate of knots by the bulky Dunvant eight and adding to their woes, the threatened rain started to sheet it down.

Tenby just about managed to stop Dunvant from adding to their score, but reverting to their tried and trusted rolling maul, it came as no surprise when Hawkins broke away and crashed over for the visitors’ third try, and with Evans adding the extras, we had a 28-12 game, with Dunvant on course for a fourth and bonus point try.

Maintaining their pressure, Dunvant were soon again camped on the Tenby line, but seizing an unexpected opportunity, Scott James broke through the visitors’ threequarters, linking with Moritz Neumann and Yannic Parker for a length of the field move, which Dunvant just managed to scramble back and stop.

Neumann was starting to give Dunvant all sorts of problems with his direct and powerful running, but he blotted his copybook with an out of the back pass to a supporting player when a simple conventional pass was needed.

Learning from his earlier oversight, Moritz Neumann was involved in, and was on the end of, some slick handling by the Tenby threes, who ripped through the stretched Dunvant defence and crossed wide out for a try which went unconverted and narrowed the gap to 28-17.

Play switched back to the Tenby 22 and an infringement by the visitors brought their attack to a sudden halt and from the resulting penalty, Patrick Roberts, probably as he was now playing at centre having replaced Scott James, with Charlie Patching slotting into his back row berth, decided to set off with a quick tap and go and 80 meteres to the Dunvant try line. Very ambitious and his enterprise backfired badly as at the breakdown on their 22, Tenby infringed and Evans added the three points, taking Dunvant out to a comfortable 31-17 lead, meaning that Tenby might miss out on a losing bonus point as time was running out.

Digging deep, the United started to play some enterprising rugby and with Dunvant relaxing their grip on a game they thought was comfortably theirs, they were being put to the test by a resilient home XV who were in search of at least a losing bonus point, if nothing else.

Their enterprise was eventually rewarded when sweeping into attack, the half-backs released Jonny Morgan, Moritz Neumann, Jack Guerreiro and Yannic Parker, who combined to put Guerreiro over for a try, which was coolly converted by Sutton, narrowing the gap to 31-24, a situation which, unlike the previous week down at Llangennech, was maintained, allowing Tenby to at least emerge from what was a very entertaining end-to-end game, well refereed by Jackie Boswell, with what could, come the end of the season, be a very valuable bonus point. Final score: Tenby United 24 pts. Dunvant 31

Despite only coming off the field with one point, when four could have been achieved, backs coach Andrew Mogs Morgan was more than pleased with the performance, although he was annoyed at too many mistakes being made when Tenby tried to force the pace and misplaced clearing kicks were costly, adding that it would be essential to maintain their form and concentration for 80 minutes on Saturday in what will be a crucial derby match up at Crymych.

Head coach Cone was of the same opinion and added that Tenby were guilty of not taking the chances they created, but added, there were more positives than negatives and echoed Mog’s comment about Saturday’s game at Crymych.

Tenby fielded: Jonny Morgan, Moritz Neumann, Jack Guerreiro, Scott James (Charlie Patching), Yannic Parker, Ashley Sutton, Matthew Morgan, Rob Clarke (Ethan Morgan), Kyle Hamer, Lewis Davies, Mike Davis (Jack Clancy), Luke Dedman, Pat Roberts, Barry Parsons (Andrew Cooke), Roy Osborn. Replacement - Nicky Guymer.