Tenby United 22 pts. Llanishen 22

Playing to get into the last 32 of the WRU Plate, Tenby Tourers sponsored Tenby United (who received a bye in round one) and Llanishen RFC (who narrowly beat Llantwit Vadre, who play in a division higher than them) met for the very first time up at Heywood Lane on a day, similar to the previous week, i.e. made for running rugby, and the large crowd, bolstered by a good number of boisterous Llanishen supporters, were not to be disappointed.

Although their paths had not crossed previously, the two teams have had very similar track records in recent years regarding league positions in their respective regional areas, with both rising up to Division One status, and both suffering relegation from that division last season.

With several positional changes due to players back and/or unavailable, Tenby took to the field determined to repeat their performance of the previous week when they ran in seven tries, thus maintaining the momentum that was beginning to build up.

The start couldn’t have been better as within two minutes, skipper Luke Hansford capitalised on a clean catch in the lineout by Barry Parsons to crash though what there was of the visitors’ defence for an early 5-0 lead.

Maintaining the pressure, a great break by Scott James was wasted as he deliberated too long in telling his supporting players where to run, while at the same time watching where the opposition were lining up, and ended up being engulfed by the Llanishen defenders.

The combined efforts of number eight Barry Parsons and scrum-half Will Crockford were next to test the Llanishen defence, but a neat chip through by Will was safely deflected into touch. Barry Parsons was again in the action, linking with wing Jack Guerreiro and again a scoring pass was deflected by some desperate defending.

Intent on getting the next score, Tenby surged into attack mode, with backs Jonny Morgan, Jordan Asparassa, Will Crockford and Jack Guerreiro all involved in threats to the Llanishen try line, and from a quick tap and go at a penalty award, Crockford put skipper Luke Hansford in for what looked to be a clear try, but sadly referee Harries must have been the only person in the ground not to see it.

Undeterred by this decision, Tenby maintained the pressure and a slick move, again involving Crockford, along with centre Mark Heywood and Luke Dedman, ended with Luke Hansford crossing the whitewash for what even referee Harries had to see and award as a try.

With Jonny Morgan this time adding the extras, Tenby had gone into a 12-0 lead with just over 15 minutes of the game gone and were well in control.

As the half wore on, however, and despite trailing, Llanishen slowly clawed their way into the game and the ball handling of their two bulky props, Lee Swindlehurst and Dave Walsh, was a joy to watch as they appeared to be involved in anything that threatened to break the Tenby stranglehold on the game.

A silly tug of a jersey during one of their attacks by a Tenby player offered Llanishen the opportunity of going for the corner with the awarded penalty, which they took and winning the lineout, the visitors, through skipper Swindlehurst, made valuable yards and quick ball from the breakdown ended with flanker George Ivins crossing for a try, narrowing the lead to 12-5.

Llanishen now started to believe in themselves and from a scrum that was retreating at an alarming pace, number eight Barry Parsons somehow scooped the ball up and linked with Scott James, who wriggled his way forward, before transferring the ball to Will Crockford, who was unlucky when his chip over the line gathered pace and went dead before it could be touched down for a try.

Llanishen lost the services of hard-working number eight Lewis Marshall for the last few minutes of the first half for illegally handling the ball at the breakdown, but despite being down to 14 players, it was the visitors who ended the half on top and only excellent crunching cover tackles by Jonny Morgan, Joe Poole and Dan Colley prevented any scores before referee Harries blew for oranges.

Words had obviously been said by the coaching staff regarding Tenby going off the boil as the first half developed and, with their ears obviously still ringing with the instructions given, Tenby went onto the attack, with Jack Guerreiro and Dan Colley linking to set Jordan Asparassa free, but the pass to the flying winger sailed harmlessly into touch and it took a superb covering tackle by Jonny Morgan to prevent the visitors from scoring as they set about maintaining their momentum from the first half.

With the game ebbing and flowing one way then the other, Guerreiro, Luke Dedman, Cookie, Luke Hansford and Jordan were all prominent in attacking moves, but the Llanishen defence held firm and quickly turned defence into attack with a scintillating display of slick inter-passing and backing up involving both forwards and backs and, just as a score seemed inevitable, a loose pass on the Tenby line was snapped up by an alert Jonny Morgan who ran the length of the field for a corner try, which he also managed to splendidly convert, to put Tenby into what should have been a winning 19-5 lead. Which only seconds earlier had looked to be heading for a 12-12 game.

Assuming that the game was now won, Tenby wheeled on newcomer Keiron Machin and second row Mike Davies to replace Will Crockford and Alex Thomas and Rob Clarke to replace Dan McDermott, but this message had not been taken on board by the visitors and from a sloppy piece of ball handling at a lineout, they capitalised on the situation as Sam Williams crashed over for a try to narrow the lead to 19-10.

Aided by some indifferent refereeing and possibly too many player changes at once, Tenby struggled to put their game together as Llanishen gained momentum and, following another sustained period of pressure, narrowed the lead to 19-15 when second row Tom Barr slid over for an excellent team try - a score which might have come earlier in the half if it hadn’t been for some tremendous tackles put in by forwards Joe Poole, Andrew Cooke and Luke Dedman.

Joe Poole, whose throwing-in at lineout time had been erratic as the match unfolded, was replaced by Dan Allen and Jordan Asparassa gave way to Conner Ennis, which cleared the Tenby bench, and the introduction of these final player replacements was aided by Llanishen querying a referee decision that caused Mr. Harries to reverse his original call, and Jonny Morgan duly slotted the penalty for what the majority of the crowd must have thought was a winning 22-15 lead as there were only minutes left to play.

Llanishen, however, are obviously a team that play flat out for the full 80 minutes and it took a superb last-ditch tackle by replacement prop Rob Clarke to prevent a Llanishen player from grounding the ball, even though he was over the line.

Not to be robbed of a score, though, a missed tackle by Tenby from the next move let centre Tom Hannah in for their fourth try and with his conversion also sailing over the bar, the scores were level at 22-22 as referee Harries blew for full-time.

With the away side scoring four tries to the three of the home side, Llanishen were awarded the victory and go into the hat for the draw for the last 32 clubs remaining in the WRU Plate competition, with Tenby sloping off with only thoughts of what could have been.

This was a game Tenby could and should have won, but they failed to maintain their early dominance and allowed the opposition to claw their way into the game, to a point where it took some desperate defence to stop them adding to their four tries.

The opposition had no outstanding performers in their ranks, they simply played as a team and relied on good handling and backing up to maintain any momentum they managed to create or generate and came off the park deserving their victory.

It at least leaves Tenby to concentrate on two fronts, rather than three, with the Pembrokeshire Cup and the league (with Pontarddulais going into second place with a victory over Tycroes on Saturday) taking all their attention, as the season rolls on.

With no game scheduled for next week due to the Wales v Australia game, Tenby will have a nigh on two-week unbroken period to prepare for the their away clash with local rivals Haverfordwest on November 12, with their opponents not playing this week as they failed to raise a side for their first round Plate clash away at Pontyberem.

Tenby would like to thank Tenby Tourers for their generous match sponsorship and Mason Bros and Heywood’s Butchers for their ball and man of the match sponsorship.

Tenby fielded: Dan Colley, Jack Guerreiro, Scott James, Matthew Morgan, Mark Heywood, Jordan Asparassa (Conner Ennis), Jonny Morgan, Will Crockford (Kieran Machin), Dan McDermott (Rob Clark), Joe Poole (Dan Allen), Ethan Morgan, Luke Dedman, Alex Thomas (Mike Davis), Andrew Cooke, Barry Parsons, Luke Hansford

Pembs. Cup quarter-final

Tenby United travel to play Aberaeron in the quarter-final of the Pembrokeshire and District Cup on Friday, November 18, kick-off 7.45 pm.

If there is sufficient interest, the club will consider arranging a coach for members and supporters.

Please let Dom or Alun Jones know by email if you are interested in going by coach to Aberaeron.