Tenby Tourers-sponsored Tenby United faced Whitland in the semi-final of the Pembrokeshire and District County Cup under lights at Heywood Lane last Friday night.

They were a little short of match practice, though, having not played since January 28, when they came away with the points from Pontarddulais, whereas Whitland had managed to play on both February 4 and 18 - albeit suffering two defeats.

Sadly, before anything got underway, there was a minute’s silence for club president and stalwart, Mike Fry, who sadly passed away earlier in the week. His support and service to the club had been immense, from 1st XV player during 1957 through to 1968, when he racked up 193 appearances, scoring 38 tries and 11 conversions, to club president from 1997 until the present day, with a one year break in 2008/9 when he switched and was club chairman. He was also very heavily involved in Pembrokeshire Youth and Junior sections - he will be greatly missed.

Tenby kicked off with the blustery post-Storm Doris conditions favouring them as they played towards the scoreboard end, but it was the visitors who took the early initiative through Raff Williams, Gareth Bennett, skipper Jack Mason and Ben Kirk, building on their robust and competitive pre-game warm-up as they trundled into the Tenby half, being slowed only by some crunching tackles from skipper Luke Hansford and Jack Guerreiro.

Despite this solid defending, Tenby conceded a penalty, the first of many to be dished out on the night by referee Richard Thomas, of Carmarthen, and fullback Nico Setaro was on target to give Whitland an early 3-0 lead.

Tenby dug deep to counter this early reverse and, despite being shunted backwards at the next scrum, number eight Barry Parsons managed to pick-up at the base and release scrum-half Matthew Morgan who, although tackled, forced Whitland to concede a penalty at the breakdown, which was converted by Ashley Sutton, levelling the scores at 3-3.

The visitors continued with their aggressive style of play, restricting their attacks to a series of short quick passes and trying to draw the wide men of Tenby into the centre of the park, concentrating on the 10 channel for most of their attacks, but Tenby remained firm and, despite losing one scrum against the head and the odd sloppy pat down from the lineout, more than held their own against their Division One opponents.

A misdirected kick gave wing Greg Lees Griffiths the opportunity to show how speedy and elusive he is, taking play from deep inside the Tenby half to the Whitland 22 before he was brought down, and hard on the tail of this threatening run, it was flanker Andrew Cooke who showed a tremendous turn of speed to slice through the Whitland defensive line, only to be halted before he could link up with his supporting team-mates.

A harsh penalty against Tenby for a high tackle, which was down to a player grasping at the collar of a shirt, offered Whitland the chance to get back into the Tenby half, but the home side responded by stealing the ball from the lineout, with Andrew Cooke, Scott James and Joe Poole combining to release skipper Luke Hansford, but the ball went to ground before the move could be developed further.

Another misdirected kick, which hung in the wind, dropped kindly for Tenby, offering wing Greg Lees Griffiths another chance to show what he could do and an illegal challenge spotted by referee Thomas offered the United the opportunity to take the lead. This was spurned, with a quick tap and go taken instead, which ended before it really got going, and Tenby were left wondering whether this rushed decision would cost them dearly as the contest progressed.

Undeterred by missing out on this opportunity, Tenby brought their threes into play and stretched the visitors’ defence to breaking point, with another penalty awarded, which this time Ashley Sutton grasped by slotting the ball between the uprights to give the Seasiders a deserved 6-3 lead.

It was a lead that could have lasted seconds as from the restart Tenby offended and Nico Setaro uncharacteristically pushed a penalty attempt wide, which was repeated minutes later for another offence committed by Tenby as they seemed to go into crazy mode, giving away a string of silly penalties and this was eventually capitalised on by Setaro, who re-found his range and brought the scores level at 6-6.

With the game drifting towards half-time, Nico Setaro brought the largish crowd to its feet by testing the home defence just one last time with a neat chip over the onrushing Tenby threequarters, just losing out on the chase to the ball by an alert Jonny Morgan.

Whitland used the start of the second half, aided by a strengthening following wind, to repeat the way they started the first half, with their aggressive approach trying to unnerve the home side and were somewhat unlucky as from a penalty harshly awarded for a deliberate knock-on, the penalty attempt from Nico Setaro hit the post and bounced back into play, allowing Tenby to clear their line.

Tenby were slowly getting back to the form they had shown in the first half and Jonny Morgan, Jordan Asparassa and prop Geoff Martin combined well to put the visitors’ defence to the test, but despite being under severe pressure, they held firm.

The game sprang into life following a lengthy period where defences had dominated, when from yet another loose kick, Jonny Morgan spotted a potential opening way out to his left and threw a huge pass to Scott James, who in turn made ground and skilfully linked with wing Jordan Asparassa, playing his 50th game at first team level for Tenby, who set off on a thundering run from just inside his own half and sliced through a bemused Whitland defence to score close to the posts. Ashley Sutton added the extras, creating a healthy 11-6 lead.

The crowd were in raptures with this scintillating move which had virtually gone the length of the pitch and in many ways mirror-imaged the decisive and final try England scored against Wales the other week.

Tenby were now in the ascendency, aided by a few dropped heads amongst the Whitland players, but if a lift was needed, it was provided for them by Tenby. Holding firm, from a series of pick and go’s close to the home line, the interjection of a linesman brought the referee’s attention to what he very harshly had seen as a no arms tackle by skipper Luke Hansford and he was sent to the naughty step by referee Thomas.

Compounding this setback, the referee mysteriously awarded the kick 15 metres in field, even though the incident happened close to the touchline and was not connected with a lineout. Even with this added help, though, Setaro was unable to narrow the score as his attempt ricocheted off the nearest upright for Tenby to clear their lines.

Despite being a man short, Tenby still applied the pressure and two searing zig-zag runs by Scott James had Whitland in all sorts of trouble as they tried to stop the marauding centre. Breaking from deep in their own half, play settled close to the Whitland line and, following a bout of pick and go’s by the home forwards, the stout visitors’ defence was eventually broken when number eight Barry Parsons made the telling break to offload to flanker Andrew Cooke, who seized his chance and sliced through the remnants of the ragged defence to canter over for a try, which was converted by Ashley Sutton, and the game was won at 18-6, with thoughts turning to the final against the winners of the other semi-final, involving Cardigan and Aberystwyth, who have as yet still to agree a date to play the game.

This was probably the best team effort of the season, with everybody stepping up to the challenge. The young front row of Geoff Martin, Joe Poole and Ethan Morgan exceeded expectations in the tight and more than carried out their attacking roles, being very prominent in the loose, with young Joe Poole taking a leaf out of the Ross Moriarty ‘how to tackle book’ as he put in a series of bone-crunching tackles.

The powerhouse of Luke Dedman and Mike Davis not only provided the grunt at scrum-time and at the breakdown, they were active around the field, as well as providing a string of quality possession from the lineout.

As a unit, the back row of Andrew Cooke, Barry Parsons and Luke Hansford had the edge over their opponents, with Cookie threatening to break through their defence every time he had the ball and skipper Hansford, despite blotting his copybook right at the end, always put Whitland under immense pressure at the breakdown. The final member of the trio, Barry Parsons, who deservedly picked up the Tenby man of match award, worked miracles at the base of the scrum, even when it was on the retreat, and put in some thundering runs, linking well with the support.

As a unit, the whole eight operated as one and, despite the experience they were up against, came out on top.

Switching to the backs, half-backs Ashley Sutton and Matthew Morgan used the ball the forwards won sensibly and either set the threequarters off or probed for openings, forcing the Whitland defence to split their attention from around and close to the scrum, lineout or breakdown, to out wide, creating just that fraction of a second needed to capitalise on an opening.

Jack Guerreiro and Scott James operated well as a pair, both in attack and defence, with Guerreiro obviously also a fan of the Moriarty type tackle, while in attack, James somehow forced the opposition to grasp at thin air as he ghosted through their ranks.

Both Greg Lees Griffiths and Jordan Asparassa kept their opposing wingers in check for most of the game and exploited the chances that came their way, with Jordan scoring one of the tries of the season. Finally, fullback Jonny Morgan, very much the organiser, put in an excellent shift, combining silky running and linking with supporting team-mates, solid defence and powerful kicking, where necessary, and had the ability to put the opposition on the back foot wondering what he would do next.

On the negative side, and there are always some, the coaching team will be concerned with the amount of penalties conceded over the 80 minutes and that worrying trend needs to be addressed as they face the end-of-the-seasons run-in, with their next opponents on Saturda) at Heywood Lane, being Hendy, who are just below second-placed Tenby United in the league, sitting with the same number of points in third position. A win is essential if Tenby wish to maintain their momentum, with only six more league fixtures left to negotiate, as well as avenging a mid-October 27-18 defeat down at Maes Gwilli.

Tenby United would like to thank Tenby Rotary Club for their match sponsorship and Mason Bros for their ball sponsorship, as well as Heywood’s Butchers for man of the match sponsorship.

Final score Tenby 18 Whitland 6

Tenby team: Jonny Morgan, Greg Lees Griffiths, Jack Guerreiro, Scott James, Jordan Asparassa, Ashley Sutton, Matthew Morgan, Geoff Martin, Joe Poole, Ethan Morgan (Lyndon Jones), Luke Dedman, Mike Davis, Andrew Cooke, Barry Parsons, Luke Hansford.

Reps. Mark Heywood, Dan McDermott, Kieran Machin, Dan Allen, Alex Thomas, Charlie Patching.

Whitland:- Nico Sataro, Lloyd Williams, Gino Setaro, Deian Augustus, Sean Coles, Connor Edwards, Adam Davies, Jacob Dewhurst, Gethin Lewis, Aaron Mayne, Raf Williams, Ben Kirk, Jack Mason ©, Gareth Bennett, Andrew Hawkins

Reps: Tomos Walters, Michael Ryan, Dai Ebsworth, Zac France-Miller, James Lewis, Andrew Jenkins, Scott Candler