Haverfordwest 10 pts. Tenby United 22

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Tenby United returned to league action after a couple of weeks of cup rugby and a missed weekend due to the Wales v Australian game and travelled the short distance to the Pembroke Road ground to take on local rivals Haverfordwest on Saturday.

The two sides had not met in the league since season 2013-14 when Tenby came away with two comfortable victories in what was their promotional year to the first division. How things change in such a short space of time.

Now in Division Two, this encounter arrived with Tenby flying high on the back of four wins out of six, while the home side languish at the foot of the table with only one victory to their name.

When it’s a local derby, however, nothing can be taken for granted and current form and pre-game hype on social media is forgotten as the two sides cross the whitewash. And Haverfordwest were certainly firing on all cylinders from the kick-off, but the Tenby defence held firm and were awarded the first penalty by referee Barry John Williams.

From the resulting lineout, though, the throw was not straight, which was not the start Tenby wanted, and this was quickly followed by a couple of wayward passes, fuelling the enthusiastic and aggressive start the home side were aiming for.

Haverfordwest were then presented with an early opportunity to score when a dropped pass was hacked on by centre Gareth John, but he was beaten to the touch down by the scrambling Tenby defence.

The first worthwhile attack mounted by Tenby involved number eight Barry Parsons and scrum-half Will Crockford, but another dropped pass brought the move to an end. Capitalising on the opportunity presented, Haverfordwest tried to mount an attack and only two crunching tackles by Joe Poole and Mike Davies stopped anything worthwhile from developing.

Play went into scrappy mode, with the heavy pitch from the overnight rain having a telling effect on any open play attempted by either side, and 20 minutes had passed before Tenby finally took the lead when Jonny Morgan fired over a penalty.

Tenby fortunately doubled the lead soon afterwards when a sliced clearance by Scott James was eventually turned into a scoring opportunity by Jordan Asparassa, aided by Jonny Morgan, and ended with Morgan firing over his second penalty and a lead of six points.

Spurred on by this latest blow, Haverfordwest got the crowd going when a threatening run by fullback Danny Morgan got Tenby into all sorts of trouble and from a lineout, aggressive second row Ilesi Vulu crashed over the line, and with Mikey Jones adding the extras, the home side, somewhat against the run of play, now led 7-6.

With the increased support from the reasonably-sized crowd egging them on, Haverfordwest tried to maintain their new-found momentum and again it took some sound defending by Tenby to stop any further score.

Turning defence into attack from deep, Jordan Asparassa, Mark Heywood, Jonny Morgan and Joe Poole made inroads into the Haverfordwest half and, aided by the ball hitting the turf, which has a nasty habit of slowing down the defence for a split second, Andrew Cooke was able to scoop it up and leave a string of would-be defenders in his wake as he sprinted over for an excellent unconverted try and a deserved 11-7 lead.

This lead was narrowed from the restart when referee Williams, possibly influenced by the home crowd’s yells for offside, deemed that centre Mark Heywood had infringed and Jones duly slotted the resulting kick to reduce the gap to 11-10.

Shooting themselves in the foot, Haverfordwest could not contain themselves and not for the first time, some over-aggressive tackling resulted in another penalty award, which Morgan slotted to extend the lead back out to 14-10, which was the score as referee Williams blew for half-time.

The teams trotted out for the start of the second half with two Tenby United stalwarts taking the field and ironically both wearing the red and black at first team level for the 117th time. Harry Bolton, in his 15th season at senior level with the club, replaced skipper Luke Hansford, who took a couple of heavy knocks in the robust first half, while Tom ‘Turbo’ Lewis (in his 11th season) was brought on for young Kieran Machin at number 10.

Both players were soon in the action, combining well with a speedy Jordan Asparassa and burly Mark Heywood in an attempt to increase the lead as the home defence was tested to the full.

In a follow-up second wave of attack, Asparassa was halted by a clumsy tackle by hooker Jamie Zambas, who was harshly yellow-carded for his troubles, putting a stretched and now depleted home team under more pressure.

Turbo brought more variety into the game and his ball distribution and use of superbly weighted kicks had Haverfordwest on the back foot, with Jonny Morgan, Scott James and Dan Colley thriving on his variety of attacking options.

One of these, close to the Haverfordwest line, was squandered as the rejigged Tenby back row failed to control the ball at the base of the scrum, forcing Will Crockford to pick up a rolling ball, only to be engulfed by the home defence as he darted for the line.

Despite now being under pressure with their seven-man pack, as Tenby took control of the set-piece, number eight Ryan Banner got the home side out of an extremely difficult situation on a couple of occasions (despite the scrum retreating at a great rate of knots) by miraculously picking up the ball from his new second row position, and making some hard yards away from his try line.

The sustained period of pressure eventually brought the reward Tenby deserved, though, when just before Jamie Zambas returned from his time on the naughty step, Turbo capitalised on quick ball from his forwards, via scrum-half Will Crockford, to fire over a close range drop goal to take the score out to 17-10.

The home side were now battling for a draw or simply to hold on to a losing bonus point as possession was being denied by a Tenby side who were now totally controlling matters.

To hammer home this message, Turbo launched a high, hanging kick towards the Haverfordwest corner and the alert Jonny Morgan was there slickly to win and feed the ball to supporting winger Jordan Asparassa, who bamboozled the scrambling home defence to outsprint the remains of the cover and slide over wide out for a try.

This turned out to be the final score, as despite the loudly shouted intentions of the Haverfordwest XV under the sticks about what they were going to do at the restart, referee Williams blew for time as the conversion attempt sailed wide, for the dispirited home side to troop off the park a well-beaten side, with no additional league points.

The scrappy first half came and went with Tenby leaving the field for oranges wondering why they were only a narrow four points in front of a side that had created very few scoring chances.

Whatever was spoken about in the changing room, the introduction of experience in the form of Turbo and Harry Bolton paid massive dividends as the pair added the go forward element that seemed to be missing in the first 40 minutes.

The young front row had no trouble against their fancied opponents and the lineout was comfortably handled by Luke Dedman, Mike Davies and Barry Parsons, with hooker Poole quickly getting over his dodgy first few minutes and accurately finding his targeted lineout men.

This, along with the fitness of the Tenby Tourers sponsored United side, turned the second half very much into a more one-sided affair, backed by the fact that the home side, despite all their aggression and intentions, were nilled and Tenby added a try and a drop goal to walk off the park with a 12-point difference and four league points that keep them in the top three in the league, along with Hendy and Pontarddulais, who are forming a small breakaway group from the mid-table chasers, while Haverfordwest stay rooted at the bottom.

With another blank Saturday due to Wales playing Japan this weekend, Tenby take to the park tonight (Friday) for a Pembrokeshire Cup match at Aberaeron, kick-off 7.45 pm.

This will be followed by a home league fixture on Saturday, November 26, against fourth-placed Pontyberem, with a 1.30 pm kick-off.

Tenby: Scott James, Dan Colley, Jonny Morgan, Mark Heywood, Jordon Asparassa, Kieran Machin (Tom Lewis), Will Crockford (Dan Thomas), Rob Clark, Joe Poole, Ethan Morgan, Luke Dedman, Mike Davis, Andrew Cooke, Barry Parsons, Luke Hansford (capt) (Harry Bolton). Reps - Dan McDermott, Dan Allen

Haverfordwest: Danny Morgan, Matthew Davies, Matt Phillips, Gareth John, Scott Candler, Mikey Jones (capt), Tom Parry, Huw Edwards, Jamie Zambas, Ieuan Williams, Ilesi Vulu, Jack Clancy, Iestyn Griffiths, Adam Williams, Ryan Banner. Reps - Gareth Williams, Daniel John, Alun Harries, Lee Summons, Dan Richards.