Monmouth achieved a comfortable win away at Pontllanffraith on Saturday with a try in each half and little serious threat to their own goal-line.

On yet another fine dry day and pitch, Monmouth chose to play against the slope and wind and their defence was good as the home team tried to use the elements to their advantage. Fast and furious though the play sometime was, the boots of Monmouth half-backs kicked accurately and deep to relieve the pressure, whilst their back row and backs tackled reliably.

Pontllanffraith were persistent if not penetrative and as a result it was a full 37 minutes before Monmouth were able to move the ball from a maul up the blind-side to feed it back inside to supporting flanker Campbell who had his best match yet to score an unconverted try. This added to two earlier penalties by fly-half Jason Forrest ensured a half-time cushion of eleven points to nil.

With quite a slope on the river side of the field, and the wind still fresh (and biting) and now behind them, the prospects for a high scoring second half seemed promising and when a set piece move worked like a treat with full-back Brace slicing through untouched for a try which Forrest converted after only a further ten minutes on the clock expectations rose.

But Monmouth have not yet showed a killer streak this season and now seemed to ease back other than to reliably repulse the home team’s sporadic raids into their half.

The referee having warned both sides about attempts to slow down play found the need to sin-bin Johnny Powell for allegedly coming in on the side of a maul although her did admit afterwards that the decision had been rather harsh.

But play was not too badly disrupted by this as the Monmouth pack had dominated the set pieces up until then, but the game seemed to lost some of its edge as a spectacle as Monmouth continued to control the play despite being one man less.

Without reply Monmouth scored yet another penalty with five minutes to go for a comfortable 21-0 win and a much needed three league points.

Crumlin at home this Saturday, ko 2.30p.m., is unlikely to be as comfortable an occasion, but at least the team demonstrated a degree of cohesion and control that has been promised for some time. The Coach was admitting to being ‘half-pleased’ that the team’s training efforts are at long last appearing to reach fruition. Even the travelling spectators found comfort in the result on such a cold afternoon. Well done the boys!