Having been accused of frittering away chances early in previous games, Monmouth came out with such enthusiasm at Newport last Saturday, that they shocked the league leaders not only for the first half but well into the second. Monmouth kicked off with the benefit of a strong wind, tore into their opponents half and were rewarded almost immediately with three points from a Croudace penalty for offside. Midfield players Adams and Brace next combined to burst upfield and when the ball was quickly recycled by the Monmouth forwards for the ensuing drive to the Home line, Brace supporting well went over, The conversion by King was a formality and Monmouth had Newport reeling. But they are not at the top of the table for nothing and they too began to spread the ball wide with their blue haired centre particularly impressing. It was following such a move that only a try saving tackle by Brace who was very sharp at centre kept the score at 0-10. Newport continued to probe and Monmouth unfortunately were getting a little enthusiastic when with an attacking formation at a set piece, inside their own 22, they fell to a sucker punch of a chip over their advanced line which a Newport centre breached to score untouched. It was fortunate that the conversion was the first of many home team kicks missed in a game of many tries. Thrills galore there were, when only three minutes later right wing King broke clear with several fly hacks only to be felled by a trip from behind that Monmouth fans saw but no-one else it seems. But Monmouth were not downhearted at this stage and only a minute later John Powell who was obviously enjoying the challenge Newport’s rugged forwards presented, drove forward slipping the ball to the supporting scrum half Morgan who quickly transferred it to Baker to outflank the covering defence for a try near the posts and an easy conversion. Crucially Newport stole five points back at the other end with a peel around from a line-out, but when Croudace added another three penalty points for the home team’s ailure to release the ball quickly, the 10-20 half time lead gave Monmouth a sporting chance despite having to face the elements in the second half. The coach preached to the team how important the first score and not giving an inch in territory were now going to be, and for nearly 30 minutes that was what happened. True the game went from end to end at times but Newport were having to revert more to power play until their right wing escaped and ran a long distance to score in questionable circumstances. With the corner flag being taken out, the referee confirmed the ball had been legally grounded. The Newport touch judge was happy to confirm that play had remained in-field from his walking position of some 22 yards distance awayBut the scores was now 20-20and the disappointment that had been expressed to the referee over the corner flag incident led to a penalty restart and a clever kick back into the same corner from which Newport were to score again. This time the Newport touch judge was to apparently see a conversion from the touchline which luckily no-one else, including the referee, did. But the damage was done. In the space of two minutes Monmouth had gone from a five point lead to a five point deficit and worse still some heads had gone down as a result. Needless hard words had been said behind the goal line and in quick succession there were two more tries as Monmouth at last ran out of steam to deliver quite a false picture, with a final score of 37-20, of how well they had all played. The gap in ability is not high from top to the bottom of this league and undoubtedly, with a full team on the field the results will come, but this time Monmouth were to be the bridesmaids yet again despite another improving performance. A lull in League proceedings now beckons as Wales tackles the might of the southern hemisphere nations but it will be back to reality with a bump when Monmouth next host Chepstow on 12 November.
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