1XV v Blackwood Stars (Home) 04 September 2010

Good League Start

On what may have been the last whole day of Summer, Monmouth entertained Blackwood Stars for a match generously sponsored by Gareth Davies. The blue sky and laundered grass promised a running game and after 8 tries as well as 8 changes of lead over the 80 minutes, no supporters present could say it had not been entertaining.

Within three minutes of the start, the visitors were left shaking their heads to be 7 points behind thanks to a dazzling set-piece move by Gareth Morgan who ran flat from the base of a scrum before finding a gap to cut through on the right. Fly half Rhys Ricketts converted well to set the scene on his personal game scoring 16 points in all with some courageous tackling to boot all of which combined to win him the inaugural Gareth Davies weekly Man of the Match award.

But Blackwood immediately demonstrated they were no slouches striking right back possibly with the aid of an unobserved knock on to score five points.

Play went to and fro at a frightening pace and when Monmouth were adjudged to be offside at a defensive ruck the visitors took the lead 5-8 and still less than ten minutes into the game.

Left wing Jack Butler was next to score on the rebound to take the lead again despite Ricketts this time finding the angle too difficult on this occasion, only to fall to a missed tackle in the centre which allowed Blackwood to regain the lead 12-13.

The ‘Stars’ were looking a handful at this stage with piercing runs out from broken play helped not a little by some imprecise tackling from the home team.

Blackwood were having to defend hard too with three minutes to the break, and when one of their number was adjudged to have gone off his feet at the ruck, Ricketts calmly converted a good goal to again move into a 15-13 lead.

But Blackwood again bounced back through their scrum half in the corner just on the stroke of half-time. With a well taken conversion this gave the visitors a 15-20 lead which the coaches did not see as disastrous because of the way Monmouth had been playing. All they wanted for the second half was more of the same but with less individual mistakes. They were up against a good side and tighter set piece play and better first up tackling should see Monmouth win through.

From the kick off however it was Blackwood who responded well , putting the Monmouth line under pressureleading to a penalty chance which they converted to go further ahead 15-23. Monmouth’s strength up front was then used in retaliation and a good scrum drive had the visitors retreating and although Blackwood won the ball hurried passing and an alert Andrew Davies charged down a clearance kick which he dived on over the line to narrow the deficit to 22-23.

Keeping the pressure on, and playing into their favourite corner, Ricketts kicked an excellent penalty from far out to take the lead again, quickly followed by a significant incursion from hooker Leighton Phillips from which ruck there ensued another phase followed by a Matt King run for the line from which he found 2nd row Tony Richards who went over in the right corner for an unconverted try and a 30-23 lead.

The game then became a real battle for another quarter of an hour to pass before the next score – this time another Ricketts penalty for failing to release a tackled player.

Blackwood were now struggling feeling the world and the referee were against them but they rallied and some more slack tackling let them in for another converted try with only injury time to come. The remaining 4 minutes were tense indeed making this DCM Roadways and Precision Engineering supported league game an exciting start to the Division 5 campaign.

The other senior teams also did well with the Druids beating Caldicot 42-0 and the Youth drawing with Usk 18-18. Brynithel away next week should form no less a test next week but perhaps of a different kind.

Monmouth RFC:

Tries: G.Morgan, J.Butler, A.Davies, T.Richards

Penalties: 4 - R.Ricketts

Conversions: 2 - R.Ricketts

Blackwood Stars:

Tries: 4 - (7) (10) (9) (22)

Penalties: 2 - (7) (12)

Conversions: 2 - (12) (12)