With the squad from the previous week’s excellent win against Kidwelly showing six changes due to injury, illness and unavailability, Tenby Tourers sponsored Tenby United travelled to the Recreation Ground to play Penclawdd, a team sitting three points above them in the league and with a tight 20-17 win under their belt back at Heywood Lane in mid-September.

Half the changes saw the usual faces reappearing, but the remainder, and these were all in the threequarter line, saw young centres Alex Codd and George Williams playing on permit from Neyland, along with Dan Colley, of Pembroke, a very late replacement for Jordan Asparassa, slotting in on the wing.

The conditions at Penclawdd were to say the least bracing, as the game started with the biting wind blowing off the Loughor estuary, conditions that were to test the resilience of the sparse crowd more than the players as they at least could run around to help stay warm and not get frozen to death.

The heavy pitch was also a reminder that, like at Tenby, the area had been saturated with constant rainy conditions for about the last six weeks or so, but surprisingly, Penclawdd were the only team in the league who had completed their full complement of games, with 13 played, while Tenby had only played 11, with bottom club Crymych and high-flyers Felinfoel showing eight games played.

With referee Andrew Moule from Port Talbot unhappy about the potential colour clash, with the home side donning a red strip, they were asked to swap to their second choice strip, which was black - no solution there then - so it was a strange looking Tenby United that trotted out onto the pitch in cream as their shirts were worn inside out - so no numbers either.

From the off, Penclawdd tore into Tenby and within minutes were 5-0 in front as a mistake among a group of United players led to a scrum and slick handling amongst the home threes saw speedy fullback Olly Smith streak over wide out for the first score of the afternoon.

Not the start the much changed visitors would have wanted. A few weeks ago, though, this early reverse would have knocked the stuffing out of Tenby, but, being on a roll with three consecutive wins under their belts and a previously not shown confidence present amongst the team, they rallied and put together several promising moves to test the home defence, with Craig Barnett and Mathew Morgan leading the way with a series of well-directed kicks.

From one foray deep in the Penclawdd half, Jonny Morgan, playing advantage from a Penclawdd knock-on, broke through their defence and the ball was eventually seized upon by flanker Andrew Cooke, who crossed for the equalising try, and with fullback Craig Barnet adding the extras, Tenby sneaked into a 7-5 lead.

The restart was taken by Luke Dedman who made some hard yards, but the home side managed to secure the ball at the breakdown and, exploiting an extra man on the wide outside, some speedy ball transfer saw Olly Smith slide over for his second try, snatching the lead back at 10-7. Similar to the initial conversion attempt, the try scorer Smith was way short with his effort to convert.

A group discussion under the sticks by the Tenby XV while the conversion was being taken focused the visitors on the task in hand and with senior players, the Morgan brothers and in the pack Roy Osborn leading the way, they started to claw their way back into the game.

The Tenby eight were giving the home pack a torrid time in the scrum, with the front row of Rob Luly, Joe Poole and Lewis Davies causing all sorts of problems for their opposite numbers, and this base gave hard working number eight Roy Osborn the platform to launch several threatening attacking moves, linking with his fellow back row players Barry Parsons and Andrew Cooke or with scrum-half Matthew Morgan.

The scrambling home defence was being severely tested, with some promising moves involving Dan Colley, Oliver Wingfield, Roy Osborn and Barry Parsons, aided by support from Matthew Morgan and Craig Barnett.

From one of these attacks, a neat chip over the onrushing home defence saw home fullback Olly Smith blot his otherwise clean sheet by knocking-on while trying to gather the rolling ball and the scrum called by referee Moule could only have one result - a try from number eight Roy Osborn as he controlled the ball expertly at the base, with Penclawdd being driven backwards. With Barnett adding the extras, Tenby snatched the lead back from the home side and the 12-10 scoreline represented how the game had developed in freezing conditions, which had worsened as the afternoon progressed.

Penclawdd didn’t help their cause, with several players complaining to referee Moule about some of his decisions, and were penalised for ‘choppsing’ and marched 10 metres back.

Adding to their woes, they were also being threatened by several rolling mauls from any lineouts close to their try-line as Tenby started to use this as an alternative attacking platform and, with the referee blowing for an offside at one of these attacks, Craig Barnett stepped up and slotted an excellent kick between the uprights, extending the lead to 15-10, much to the disgust of several of the home side’s coaching staff.

This lead was maintained up to half-time, with a try-scoring attempt by Craig Barnett, bringing his kick/chase and dribble skills into play, only being thwarted at the last minute by a very stretched home defence.

Unfortunately, prop Lewis Davies was injured right at the close of the first half, which strangely was brought to a close several minutes after Davies had been injured without any additional play taking place.

With the returning Rob Clarke replacing the unfortunate Davies, Tenby were gifted a very welcome start to the second half as the kick to set the game in motion ended up back in the Penclawdd half and the scrum that was awarded gave Roy Osborn the opportunity to launch another attack from the base.

At the resulting breakdown, Tenby were extremely fortunate to be awarded a penalty as Penclawdd were pinged for playing the ball with a boot from an offside position, when it clearly ricocheted off a stray United boot. But the decision had gone Tenby’s way and Barnett capitalised on this slice of good fortune by slotting over a superb kick, taking the score out to 18-10.

The home side had obviously received a stern talking to from their coaching side at half-time and threatened the Tenby line with several slick attacking moves, with quick ball release and round-the-back-of-defender passes figuring heavily in any move they put together, but against a resilient visiting defence, these yielded no positive results as a combination of fast line speed and driving tackles employed by Tenby ended with many of the moves going latterly across the field of play.

The game, however, had entered a phase where Tenby seemed unable to get out of their 22 as Penclawdd pressed for the next score, and was a classic case of one side confident they had the skill to break through, against a side equally confident that their well organised and resilient defence could hold firm, and as defences at times win games, that was happening in this match.

To add to Penclawdd’s misery, Tenby increased their lead when one of their rare forays into their half ended with a home player being red-carded for throwing a punch and Barnett obliged by bringing his match total to 11 points by slotting over the resulting penalty, taking the score out to 21-10.

A despondent Penclawdd added to their woes, with the restart not travelling the necessary 10 metres and the resulting scrum, against a depleted pack, saw man-of-the-match Roy Osborn break from the back, initiating another rare second half attack for Tenby, which was carried on by Craig Barnett and Rob Clarke, with referee Moule judging, however, that the final and what would have been scoring pass from Clarke to replacement Luke Hansford was centimetres forward.

The game petered to a tame close after that, with Tenby very well pleased with their 21-10 victory, taking their winning streak out to four matches on the bounce, with a healthy 104 to 46 points difference and a very valuable 17 league points gained, propelling them up to sixth place in the table, with 29 league points.

The coaching team can be well pleased with the result, especially with the number of changes they were forced to make, and the performances of Alex Codd, George Williams and Dan Colley made their selection of the three the right decision, while on the reverse side of the coin, the three players involved also thoroughly enjoyed their outings at the higher level and thanks go to local clubs Neyland and Pembroke for helping resolve a player shortage situation.

Tenby face second placed Gowerton at Heywood Lane tomorrow (Saturday), a side coming off a good away victory up at Aberystwyth last Saturday, and a side wanting to gain the double over the Seasiders, having comfortably won 40-24 at home at the end of September. But a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then, with new combinations tried and several new young players being drafted in, resulting in a head of steam, in terms of momentum, being built up and we should be in for an entertaining encounter.

Tenby fielded: Craig Barnett, Oliver Wingfield, Alex Codd, George Williams, Dan Colley, Jonny Morgan, Matthew Morgan, Rob Luly ((Ethan Morgan), Joe Poole, Lewis Davies (Rob Clarke), Luke Dedman, Mike Davis (Jack Clancy), Barry Parsons (Luke Hansford), Andrew Cooke, Roy Osborn.