Monmouth won away at Oakdale last Saturday with some style and a clear margin. Their inbuilt talent at last had a little of the luck it has deserved all season and brought a much anticipated but deserved win. On a cracking day and pitch for rugby, Monmouth chose to play up the slope and left one wondering if it were the right decision when their opponents put them under early pressure. But King at full back had the confidence to run the ball out from his line and when caught saw his pack win the ensuing scrum for a deep clearing kick to touch. Oakdale have as many young players as Monmouth and it was their composure that cracked first when their full back earned himself a yellow card for stamping all over a Monmouth player after only four minutes of the game. Oakdale did not immediately suffer from their reduced number but eventually they gave away a penalty in the visitors’ half which Gareth Morgan took quickly and ran some 60 yards to out-pace the retreating defence for what is becoming a solo try of the game. King converted and within a further ten minutes kicked a penalty for offside to raise the score to 0-10. Oakdale had been shaken and now began to steady their game, and in the run up to half-time it was Monmouth who needed to dig deep as Oakdale cut out their mistakes and pressed the visitors’ line mainly through driving mauls. But the Monmouth defence stoutly held them out time and time again for a 0-10 turn around score-line. Monmouth now had the considerable slope and began with vigour. And perversely, despite the earlier all round performance of Oakdale’s young and excellent 2nd Row prospect who had dominate the line-out, Oakdale called a three man line early in the second half and lost it. Monmouth were queued up in the backs itching to score and it was left wing Baker who completed the effort from a long way out on one of his best days so far this season. King again converted to make it 0-17. The game went to and fro for a while and what would have been a good try went begging for want of quicker passing along the line this time to the right but then suddenly back came the Monmouth of old. Tempers flared and the referee was quick to punish dissent. The Monmouth enforced retreat helped Oakdale raise their game and it was only strong and tenacious tackling by the team in general and flanker Gray in particular that kept them out for a prolonged period at this stage. Again Monmouth cleared their lines but in an ensuing line-out Oakdale redeemed themselves and with a fine take and feed to a big forward on the peel who crashed over for Oakdale’s first score an hour into the game. Their kick once again fortunately failed. And then things went a little pear shaped as they say when first Hoggins was sin-binned for slowing down the ball at a ruck and then Baker was harshly adjudged to have high tackled a player who seemed to duck into it. Luckily Oakdale’s ill temper at this incident lost them a player for ten minutes, too. The intensity of the game now increased with both sides battling hard for the spoils but it was Monmouth who were to convert their periods of pressure through first a well driven maul from which, when it piled up, 2nd Row Edwards forced himself over the line to emerged triumphant. King strangely missed the relatively easy conversion but his game had been a good one along with the rest of the team. Once confidence flowed, tries resulted and there is no reason why this should not now continue. Apart from the challenge of the Garndiffaith tough nuts, that is, who are next Saturday’s visitors to the Sports Ground, kick off 2.30pm.
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