Tenby United 58 pts. Kidwelly 22

After a break of 21 days since the team last trotted out on the field to battle for league points, Tenby Tourers sponsored Tenby United could have had easier opponents than last season’s Division One West champions, Kidwelly, for their return to action at Heywood Lane last Saturday. The visitors had turned them over earlier in the season 28-14 at Parc Stephens and in the current league table sit one place above Tenby, albeit that the red and blacks have a game in hand.

With training disrupted by the Christmas festivities, the fitness factor was an important part in the game for both sides as they attempted to get back into physical contact mode on a pitch well watered by continual rain throughout December but, with Kidwelly kicking off, away from the scoreboard end, the large festive crowd were in for a truly unexpected treat of running rugby.

The scene was set right from the off, with both Mike Davies and centre Patrick Roberts making inroads into the Kidwelly defence to create an opportunity for scrum-half Matthew Morgan to spot a gap and turn on the after-burners and leave the Kidwelly defence floundering as he flew from the Tenby 22 to cross for a superb try at blistering pace, giving the United a very early 5-0 lead.

To say Kidwelly were taken aback by this early score would be an understatement as the coach shouted at the players as they assembled under the posts for the conversion.

At the restart, the line speed of the Tenby defence was continually disrupting any attacking moves tried by the visitors and it came as a surprise when centre Davies breached this defence and linked with back row player Rice to send him in under the sticks for a good try. The conversion by Gareth Rees pushed Kidwelly into a narrow 7-5 lead, but on the downside, Kidwelly prop Warren James was injured during the move and had to be replaced by Calvin Williams.

Undeterred by this reverse, Tenby maintained their attacking theme, with hooker Kyle Hamer slicing through the visitors’ defence, only to lose the ball in the tackle.

The outstanding feature of the game, even at this early stage, was the support and backing up style that Tenby were displaying and this was highlighted when the Morgan brothers cleverly combined and slickly exchanged passes for Matthew to go over for his second try. A successful conversion by fullback Craig Barnett grabbed the lead back at 12-7, a lead Tenby were not to relinquish for the remainder of the game.

The festive season was in full flow as Tenby took full advantage of the presents, in the form of missed tackles, given to them by the visitors’ defence, with Jordan Asparassa showing that he was up for a zig-zag run each time he received the ball.

The attacking qualities being shown by Tenby were equally matched by their solid defensive qualities, with one crunching tackle by Roy Osborn bringing gasps from the groups of visiting supporters around the ground.

Maintaining attack after attack, a score was always imminent and Patrick Roberts and Barry Parsons were on the end of one foray, which ended with flanker Andrew Cooke crashing over the whitewash and extending the lead to 19-7 as Craig Barnett stroked the conversion over the crossbar.

Kidwelly were being run ragged by Tenby, with the home players supporting the ball carrier on both sides and the ball carrier offloading before being tackled and so becoming another support player to the new ball carrier.

Timing and angles of running are critical with this style of rugby and Tenby got too elaborate at one stage and were pinged for crossing by referee Elfyn Morris-Roberts, when a more straightforward pass would have released the support runner for the run in and another try.

Learning from this one error, however, Tenby again sprung into attack mode from deep inside their own half and Barry Parsons, Andrew Cooke and Patrick Roberts swiftly moved the ball out to Jordan Asparassa, who crossed for bonus try number four and a well deserved 24-7 lead.

In an attempt to maintain their momentum, Tenby launched a move straight from the restart, with Asparassa and Andrew Cooke again combining to release fullback Barnett, but unfortunately the ball was knocked on,.

Keeping the pressure on, however, it wasn’t long before a storming run by Luke Dedman, who was on the end of a series of quick passes, saw him held up just short of the line but was able to slip the ball to man-of-the-match Patrick Roberts, who crashed over for an unconverted try and a 29-7 lead.

With half-time approaching, the lead was extended as Rob Osborn tidied up at the back of a retreating scrum, only for Kidwelly to infringe and from the penalty awarded, Craig Barnett brought the half to a close with his successful penalty kick, extending the score to a very healthy 32-7.

The sides took to the field at the start of the second half with two clear intentions - the visitors needed to get their act together and add to their meagre seven points, while the home side simply needed to maintain the momentum and dominance shown all through the first half and add to their haul of five tries.

It was the home side who started better with a storming run out of defence by Roy Osborn, but referee Morris-Roberts, who had a tremendous first half, blew for holding on and Rees did the rest, slotting over the penalty and closing the score to 32-10.

Compared to the first half, the second half started as a scrappy affair with, for the first time, dropped passes, knock-ons and mis-timed passes dominating, but after about 15 minutes things slotted back into place, with a sweeping move involving among others, Roy Osborn, Matthew Morgan, Andrew Cooke and the ever-present Patrick Roberts, releasing Jack Guerreiro, who crossed for try number six, taking the score out to 37-10.

Maintaining the pressure on the bedraggled visitors’ defence, Tenby again swept up field. this time with Barry Parsons, Craig Barnett, Jonny Morgan and Jordan Asparassa all involved, ending with Patrick Roberts crossing for a well-deserved try and with Barnett adding the extras, Tenby were now comfortably ahead at 44-10.

Within the space of 10 minutes, the United had run in for three tries, with the ever-present Barry Parsons on hand to complete a very lengthy passing movement and with Craig Barnett adding the extras, it took the score past half-century to 51-10.

The coaching/management team obviously thought the game was well won and replacements started to be brought into action, with returning skipper Luke Hansford replacing hard-working Barry Parsons (who had an excellent game), debutant Oliver Wingfield on for Yanik Parker, Charlie Patching replacing flanker Andrew Cooke, who had run himself to a standstill, and impressive front rowers Kyle Hamer and Lewis Davies being replaced by Joe Poole and Ethan Morgan.

With so many changes, you might have expected the tempo of the game to slow somewhat while the newcomers got into the game, but not here. Firstly, a very cheeky crossfield punt from a penalty by Jonny Morgan to the unmarked Jordon Asparassa was only foiled as the winger knocked-on trying to scoop up the bouncing ball and, with his only mistake of the game, centre Jack Guerreiro failed to nail his opposite number and centre Jones slipped the ball to Steffen Davies to go over unopposed.

With Rees adding the extras, narrowing the lead to 51-17, Tenby now had the target of preventing the visitors leaving Heywood Lane with a four-try bonus point, a target skipper Morgan clearly told his colleagues while they stood under the posts for the conversion with 15 minutes of the match still to go.

Their defensive task was made harder when prop Luly was yellow-carded and unfortunately for recently arrived replacement Charlie Patching, he had to leave the field as the Luly prop replacement Lewis returned to the front row.

Taking into account what had gone on previously, the game went through a quiet period while Tenby displayed the other talent they have when needed, as their solid defence, albeit down to 14 men, held the visitors at bay and, when given the opportunity, burst into attack mode, and one sweeping length of the field move was only thwarted when the visiting touch judge, correctly, called for a foot in touch as the final Tenby player rounded the last line of the Kidwelly defence.

Still alert to any scoring opportunity, albeit from deep inside their own half, Matthew Morgan launched a kick that was eagerly chased by Jordan Asparassa and he showed his previously unseen footie talents as he controlled the rolling ball with his feet and rounded the last line of defence before passing to the supporting Craig Barnett, who went over unopposed. Adding the extras, he took his personal total to 18 points and the team to a 58-17 lead.

Trying right up until the end of a thrilling encounter, a well-beaten Kidwelly side managed to close the score to 58-22, with scrum-half Alex Davies scrambling over just before referee Morris-Roberts blew for time, with a very jubilant home side being cheered of the field by their loyal home supporters, while a dispirited Kidwelly side trooped off hoping 2018 will not see a repeat of a drubbing like this.

A great team performance, with all 22 players turning up on the day to give what was undoubtedly the performance of the season and a superb way to see out 2017.

Coaches Cone and Mogs can be well pleased and, with three away fixtures and a single home fixture lined up for January, this was just what was needed to focus the players on the task ahead, before the season goes into Six Nations mode come February, with only one game scheduled for that month.

However, as with all games, there are pluses and minuses and on the plus side, Mogs in particular will be over the moon with the display and game management applied for the full 80 minutes by the half-backs (something that has been a worry for him all season), especially as it came from his two sons - they dominated play and by a country mile they were the difference between the two sides.

Cone, on the other hand, will be well pleased with the performance in the lineout, which at times this season has been a bit iffy. But throughout this match, the use of their four specialists in Luke Dedman, Mike Davis, Barry Parsons and Roy Osborn, with excellent service by the lifters, as well as Kyle Hamer, the thrower in at lineout time, was first class and not only provided quick and clean ball for scrum-half Matthew Morgan to exploit, but also stole or disrupted the Kidwelly throw-ins.

On the other side of the coin, there will be some concern expressed, with certain players ignoring support players when they made a break and we saw the odd bout of ball retention when a transfer was the correct option. Although in this match it wasn’t the difference between a win and a loss, it some of the matches to come, it could be. There were at least 30 points “left out there on the pitch” and this will need to be worked on in training, with an away trip to Penclawdd scheduled for tomorrow, the team just two points above Tenby in the league, but having played two games more. With Tenby set the challenge of extending their winning run to four games, thus maintaining the momentum gained as 2017 drew to a close

Tenby United would like to thank Sion Brace for his ball sponsorship along with Heywood’s Butchers for their continued man-of-the-match award, which this week deservedly went to Patrick Roberts.

Tenby fielded: Craig Barnett, Yanik Parker (Oliver Wingfield), Pat Roberts, Jack Guerreiro, Jordan Asparassa, Jonny Morgan, Matthew Morgan, Rob Luly, Kyle Hamer (Joe Poole), Lewis Davies (Ethan Morgan), Luke Dedman, Mike Davis, Barry Parsons (Luke Hansford), Andrew Cooke (Charlie Patching), Roy Osborn.