Tenby United 28 - Yr Hendy 66: Despite a rather stuttering start to the second half of the season’s fixtures and the new year, FBM sponsored Tenby United welcomed Yr Hendy to a blustery but dry Heywood Lane, with a team showing several changes from their last outing against Crymych.

Due to a combination of injury, unavailability and work commitments, Shane Rossiter and newcomer Mark Hamilton both made starts in the backs, while on the bench, returning players included old favourites Rob Clark and Wyndham Williams, along with Dan Allen and Ash Murdoch, who was making a welcome return after a long illness.

In a game where tries came at regular intervals, with the visitors outscoring the United United by 10 tries to four, it was unusual in so much as Tenby started both halves well by scoring the first try within two minutes of the kick-off and were again first over the whitewash in the second half.

They also finished on a high by scoring the final try of the game to bag a fourth try bonus point.

The result, however, was never in any doubt. With a big pack and a set of speedy backs, there was only going to be one winner - Hendy, and they can be well pleased with their performance as they completed the double over a spirited Tenby side that stuck to their hard challenging task for the full 80 minutes.

Starting brightly, Tenby reacted from securing the kick-off and set off on a move that involved forwards Ethan Morgan, Luke Dedman, Roy Osborn and Jack Broadhurst and ended with Lloyd Thomas putting a deft chip over the last defender to set up Jack Parkinson for the opening try, which was converted by Thomas, giving the Seasiders an unexpected early lead at 7-0.

Reacting to this reverse, Hendy went straight into attack mode and from a lineout close to the Tenby line performed the first of many catch and drives, with 13 players piling in to drive centre Iwan Mayze over, a try Morris converted to bring the scores level at 7-7.

Tenby were next on the attack, but were penalised close to the Hendy line and scrum-half Beynon, although taking a quick tap and go yards from the point where the penalty was actually awarded, went the length of the field to score under the posts. Adding the extras, Morris took the scores out to 7-14

Maintaining their momentum, it was Beynon again who breached the stretched Tenby defence with an outrageous dummy to score his second converted try, quickly extending the lead to 7-21.

Tenby rallied somewhat, with Moritz Neumann¸ Ben Pugh¸ Jack Broadhurst and Charlie Patching all prominent in both defence and attack, aided by skipper Dedman and Tom Barrass, although the United were fortunate when referee Kibble deemed a forward pass prior to a Hendy player crossing the line.

Hendy became camped on the Tenby line and executed another catch and drive, with burly number eight Aled Thomas emerging from a mass of bodies clutching the ball for the all-important fourth try bonus point and a 7-28 lead, as Morris again converted.

The move was repeated minutes later, taking the score out to 7-33.

Learning from what was an obvious scoring ploy, from the restart Tenby replicated what Hendy had been doing and from a perfectly executed catch and drive, Jack Broadhurst emerged holding the ball to take the score to 14-33 as Thomas converted.

Hendy upped the pace with half-time approaching as Tenby fell off one or two tackles and scored two converted tries, extending the margin to 14-47.

The writing was on the wall for the home side, with the fear that Hendy would step up the pace in the second half and rattle up a high score, but to their credit, Tenby dug deep and, although there was a rather harsh penalty try awarded by fussy referee Stuart Kibble (when Tenby were down to 14 men), Hendy were contained, as they only ran in two additional tries.

The efforts of Tenby were also rewarded with a matching two tries, as Moritz Neumann and Jack Tucker both crossed the whitewash and, with two successful conversions by Thomas, the game ended at 66-28.... but on a sour note, as right on the final whistle, Roy Osborn was red-carded by referee Kibble, even though he was the player tip tackled by an opposition player -so much for player protection.

Speaking to coach Jonathan Evans after the game, he was rightly angry over the tip tackle incident, which, from talking to the referee post-match, he had ascertained had not been deemed an offence by the official - which was not borne out by the video of the game.

Jon had also spoken to the Hendy coaches, to be told that their squad of 20 was the strongest they had fielded to date and he agreed they were the strongest and most organised team to visit Heywood Lane this season.

He singled out three Tenby United players, Ben Pugh, Tom Barrass and Jack Broadhurst, all under 19, who yet again were standout players, ably supported by the rest of the team who battled for the full 80 minutes, and reflected that possession throughout the match was not as uneven or dominated by one side as the scoreline might suggest, but he added that Hendy were clinical and punished the United for their mistakes.

Away to third placed Gowerton tomorrow (Saturday), Tenby will be facing a side wanting to get back into winning ways having been soundly beaten by local rivals Gorseinon last Saturday 23-0.

Tenby fielded: Shane Rossiter, Geraint Powell (Ash Murdoch), Moritz Neumann, Jack Parkinson, Mark Hamilton (Jack Tucker), Lloyd Thomas, Ben Pugh, Ethan Morgan (Rob Clark),  Tom Barrass (Dan Allan), Rob Luly, Luke Dedman (capt.), Charlie Patching (Wyndham Williams), Mike Davis, Roy Osborn, Jack Broadhurst.