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After several weeks of exciting play Monmouth were brought back to earth with a bump by Cardiff HSOB who beat them15-10 on a day of atrocious weather but when once again the Sports Ground was playable whilst many other grounds were not. Opting for a first half into the gusty gale-force wind and occasional showers, Monmouth’s plan was to contain their visitors by determined and disciplined defence, but they had not allowed for the consistent field kicking from the Cardiff team and their sheer determination to spoil at every opportunity. Allowances were needed from the referee for the weather which he seemed to allow but with great inconsistency. Cardiff HSOB played him well but Monmouth could not adjust their approach sufficiently, or was it that they were not allowed to. The debate continued in the bar after the game for some time. Playing with the elements Cardiff HSOB were soon in the lead from a delicately chipped penalty. Monmouth rallied but failed to cross the line which was their only option due to the fierce wind. The opposing defence was excellent preventing the principal home ball carriers from crossing the gain line throughout, aided it seemed by the frequent tolerance of offside positioning by the visitors, but often the choice of wrong options on a day when mistakes needed to be kept to a minimum. Having rebuffed the Monmouth attacks by long kicks out of defence again and again, two more kicks, including a measured drop-goal, were clocked up by the end of the first quarter for a 0-9 advantage. Monmouth’s scrum was strong, shoving the visitors back on their own ball from time to time, and the line-out was as good as one might expect in such difficult throwing conditions, but where it counted, it was Cardiff who knew best how to disrupt attacks and frustrate the recycling of the ball whilst avoiding the wrath of the referee. It therefore was no surprise, to see a further 6 points added through penalty goals in the final stages of the first half for a significant cushion of 0-15 at the interval. Monmouth knew the size of the task and early in the second half twice went near to forcing their way over the visitors’ line. But the fact they failed gave Cardiff HSOB strength to dig deeper and the best that Monmouth could manage was when Jason Forrest clawed back a penalty kick after 8 minutes. Monmouth hopes were raised and the local boys cheered on. But try as they might Cardiff HSOB grew stronger when one might have expected them to start to decline. Exhortation and the requisite substitutions continued but to almost no avail until captain Andrew Davies enlivened the day on 40 minutes by scoring an excellent try which Forrest converted. At 10-15 with some injury time to come, Monmouth tried to throw
everything at the visitors, but it was not to be their day as muddy
hands and a still disruptive wind combined to ruin what hope they
had of overtaking the visitors before the end.
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