Llangennech 39 pts Tenby United 36

If ever there was a good advert for division one rugby it was last Saturday’s season opener between Llangennech and Tenby United in which no less than 11 quality tries were scored in an absolute thriller of a game.

After a very constructive and hard worked pre-season under the new coaching regime of Chris ‘Cone’ James and Richard Rossiter and with the leadership of new club captain Luke Hansford, the Seasiders were going into the game full of confidence in their young squad and very eager to start the season in positive fashion.

This they certainly did and with a few key players still unavailable, it was a chance for some of the United’s younger players to impress.

Five of the games 11 tries came through the open expansive style of the GD Harries sponsored Seasiders, along with 11 points from the boot of outside-half Ashley Sutton, who also ran his threequarters well all day.

The first half was a chance for both sides to shake off any rust and to size each other up, with the home side going into the interval with their noses slightly in front with a lead of eight points to three.

Llangennech fullback Ellis Phillips opened the scoring early on with a well-worked try which came through some slick passing from the backs and former Scarlets number 10, Ceirion Thomas, whose kicking accuracy was probably the only difference between the two sides, landed one first half penalty and Ashley Sutton kept the visitors in touch with a well-hit penalty of his own.

Early in the second half, Llangennech got their noses slightly in front when their backs seemed to just outstretch the Seasiders defence and they crossed for two quality tries.

The first was touched down by winger Tom Barnes and the second was well finished by Ellis Philips.

Thomas converted one of the scores to give his side a lead of 20 points to three just two minutes into the half.

The United fronted up, though, and weren’t going to allow the home side to have it all their own way; they began to dominate possession and looked very dangerous every time they had the ball.

The United soon struck back when skipper and openside flanker Luke Hnsford turned over Llangennech possession with the help of number eight Roy Osborn and young scrum-half Nathan Lowe, who had a fine afternoon on his league debut, was able to move the ball quickly wide for Ashley Sutton to jink his way deep into the Llangennech 22, before offloading to Toby Smith, who crashed over for the score, which went unconverted.

It was Smith who had the next word, too, as he rounded off a well-executed Seasiders move following some strong and direct lines of running from the forwards and some fancy footwork from the backs, which gave the Pembrokeshire side the edge and a growing confidence to play right in their hosts’ faces.

Smith crossed the line and Sutton converted to bring Tenby back to within five points, before the the home side hit back with another try wide out from centre Rhys Davies and Thomas added the extras.

The United’s top tackler, Harry Bolton, kept the Seasiders within striking distance soon after, though, with a well-deserved try and again Sutton landed the tricky conversion, before winger Barnes slid in for his second try to keep the lead in the hands of Llangennech.

The lead was stretched further in the 75th minute and surely the game put well out of the Seasiders’ grasp when Ceirion Thomas converted another well-worked try from the Carmarthenshire side, which was scored from a driving lineout by second row Phil White and meant that with five minutes remaining, the score was 39-22 in Llangennech’s favour.

The visitors kept up the expansive rugby, though, and were certainly the fitter side in the latter stages of the game and theyir refusal to give up was rewarded in the 78th minute when Hansford crossed the whitewash for the bonus point try and Sutton’s conversion put his team back within 10 points of their hosts.

Tenby threw everything at Llangennech right into injury time and they had the last word in the 82nd minute when Luke Hartland hit the line at pace and rounded two would-be defenders, before sending powerful winger Mark Heywood in for the try, which, with another Sutton conversion, meant that the Seasiders had come agonisingly close to stealing the game, but had to settle for a losing bonus point to go with the try bonus they had already earned.

Despite narrowly losing the game, the Seasiders left the field pleased with their first performncnce and took plenty of positives from the game along with one or two things that they will have worked on this week in preparation for their first home game of the season tomorrow (Saturday) when they welcome Kidwelly to Heywood Lane for a 2.30 pm kick-off.

Tenby United fielded: Toby Smith, Jordan Asparassa, Greg Lees Griffiths, Jack Guerreiro, Mark Heywood, Ashley Sutton, Nathan Lowe, Roy Osborn, Luke Hansford (Capt), Andrew Cooke, Harry Bolton, Rob Weston, Rob Clark, Dan Allen, Rob Luly, Ethan Morgan, Nicky Guymer, Dan Colley, Alex Thomas, Luke Hartland.