Last Saturday Monmouth missed an opportunity to consolidate their league position by taking second place to visitors Nantyglo in a very evenly fought contest on the Sports Ground which Maddock Tool and Plant Hire had helped sponsor.

For the first 20 minutes on a chilly damp day during which Croudace kicked a penalty, the Monmouth pack dominated in a controlled way through scrum and line-out and a win seemed in prospect. Nantyglo's discipline was at first errant but the referee dished out warnings and the visitors took sufficient notice to avoid incurring his wrath, levelling the scores with a penalty of their own in the thirtieth minute.

Monmouth was succumbing to a side that had no obvious stars but all of which played hard together and wanted to win. Nantyglo dogged away and Monmouth were very much on the back foot by half-time even if the scores were still level.

The coach read the riot act to them, reminding them that unless they played the rugby they had at the start, they would lose to an inferior side but one with a greater will…. And so it was to prove. After fifteen minutes a strong burst on the right towards the river end by a Nantyglo three-quarter over some 35 yards, aided not a little by some sloppy Monmouth tackling, was supported on the inside at the last minute from an overhead lobbed pass and the scorer crossed the line untouched. Their fly-half improved the score.

This at least roused the home team at last and a mere two minutes later, following a line-out 20 yards out which was well taken by Powell, Monmouth drove a maul, consistently their most successful move of the day, over the line with Phillips being awarded the try, a fitting reward for a player who is improving in leaps and bounds in his new back row position. Croudace just failed the difficult conversion.

But the older campaigners from Nantyglo were not going to give up the initiative easily and kept Monmouth at bay until the 75th minute when Croudace edged the home side ahead with another penalty.

The pressure was now on Monmouth, who were equally determined not to concede but with both flanks well covered, they succumbed to a cheeky but deadly dropped goal by Nantyglo right on the stroke of normal time.

Monmouth threw caution to the wind as the referee played out a full five minutes for injury nearly scoring twice and then missing a similar dropped goal attempt. The contrasting emotions of the two teams at the final whistle highlighted how close and important the result had been to both sides.

The next home game is on 19 December against a very much improving Usk side, repeated a mere five days later when both teams meet again in the annual Boxing Day derby match. Still much to play for!