Much rested on Saturday’s game against St Peter’s RFC. A win by Monmouth would have taken them above the visitors and within striking distance of promotion. Having lost 18-11 in the first match of the season, would Monmouth have improved enough to tip the scales this time or not?

On a glorious day and a satisfactory pitch despite the snow of recent days, the home team were first on the board through the boot of fly half Forrest with a well taken penalty goal and then despite St Peter’s having the greater territorial advantage, centre Gareth Morgan latched onto an opponent’s mistake and sprinted to the line in the fifteenth minute for an easy try which Forrest comfortably converted.

St Peter’s continued to press but were not using their wingmen much to their coach’s voluble disapproval and in the 28th minute left wing Matt Morgan came in field to intercept a wild pass and ran around 70 yards to score under the post for Forrest to again add the extra points.

Monmouth continued to defend stoutly and deserved the 17-0 half-time lead.

The St Peter’s coach read his team the riot act during the interval and predictably they came back at Monmouth even more strongly to force a five yard scrum in the right hand corner of the field after five minutes and from which they at last breached the home try line.

St Peter’s now were choosing to kick deep and to the corners because they had been unable to break through the determined Monmouth tackling led by Matt Taylor who played himself to a standstill by the end and ‘flanker destroyers’ Perrott and Campbell. This certainly worked in keeping Monmouth pinned in their own half, but Monmouth rallied from time to time and in the 12th minute began to make inroads of their own leading to a fine passing movement to their right which resulted in captain Andrew Davies drawing the defence across and then darting through the gap that appeared for a try which when converted made for a 24-5 lead.

But perhaps this was the mistake because a cushion of 19 points with 27 minutes remaining must have seemed eminently defendable because they began to go to sleep just a little.

St Peter’s persisted with kicks that turned the Monmouth backs until they eventually broke the defences again with a converted try. A cry of we’ve still got 12 points on them’, however well meant, did not create the calm determination needed to hold out, bringing instead some half hearted tackles on the now very determined St Peter’s runners, so much so that in the space of nine minutes they broke through twice more for well deserved tries that brought them level at 24-24 and then only because their kicker missed a relatively easy conversion.

Now Monmouth dug in really deeply and the last four minutes were incredibly exciting before the referee allowed people to get their breath back after a scintillating afternoon’s competition.

A tentative prospect of promotion may have been lost but next week there will be no room for relaxation or weakness because Chepstow again visit to replay the game they previously won well but was declared void because of a change of referee mid way through the match. This will be Monmouth’s chance to put behind them being bullied out of games and playing attractive rugby instead. Kick of is at 2.30p.m. at the Sports Ground and strong local support should help as well as be entertained.

The day after sees the Wales v France match showing in the Club-house which will be open, and new Steward Austin Docking is keen to welcome (and feed) even more supporters than previously, so why not come along? It’s not the same watching on TV and drinking canned beer is it?