Having defeated Monmouth Druids on the two previous occasions this season, Abergavenny must have felt confident in the third contest between these old rivals. The Druids had only one substitute due to mainly first team call-ups, so confidence was not high. Abergavenny, the visitors, kicked off and immediately the Druids went storming into the opponents half. They dominated play for the first twenty minutes and a number of handling movements stretched the Abergavenny defence. This stubborn defence was proving difficult to breach, however hard the Druids tried. Backs and forwards combined but they failed to find the answer to the strong tackling of the visitors. The older Druids forwards used all their experience against their younger opponents. The rolling maul was particularly effective and this weapon gained yards of territory. Pressure told however when a well judged kick put the Druids close to the Abergavenny line. From the line out, the Druids developed a maul and Second Row Andy Scourfield was driven over to score an unconverted try. This was the only score at half time and the Druids, whilst being disappointed with only one score, must have been optimistic about the second half. The second half saw Abergavenny start determinately and it was the Druids defence which was asked to perform adequately. The entire threequarter line were prominent and wings Paul ‘dapper’ Vaughan and Gareth ‘gasser’ Rowlands were particularly outstanding. There was one exciting, momentous, moment when a Druids player, who shall remain nameless, positioned himself in the ‘pocket’ and attempted a 30-metre drop goal. The ball was a real daisy cutter- it never reached more than one metre off the ground -and eventually went between the Abergavenny full backs legs and hurtled over the visitors dead ball line. The good news was that he did not pull a hamstring! Moreover, the Druids increased their lead in a similar way to the first score. From a rolling maul close to the Abergavenny line, happy Hooker, Max Dycke, crashed over for a try which was converted by Outside Half Rob Frost. From a scrum at half way the Druids took the match away from Abergavenny by adding to the scoreline. Abergavenny won possession from a scrum and moved the ball to one of their Centres who was immediately tackled by Dan Wilkinson. Although appearing to knock on the ball, Wilkinson dribbled the ball some 30 metres and dived on the ball over the visitors try line for a fine individual effort. The ever reliable Rob Frost added the extra points. Abergavenny responded by creating an overlap on the left hand side and the left wing dived over in the corner. The conversion kick failed. Not to be undone, the Druids rapped up the match when live wire Inside Half Andy Tansill gave an overhead pass to Full Back Ian Jeffs for him to squeeze over in the corner for an unconverted try. The final whistle blew soon after the restart to give the Druids a 24 points to 5 points victory. A weakened squad in terms of numbers outplayed Abergavenny by employing the right tactics and showing admirable determination. Each and every Druids player deserves praise and Andy Howells and Andy Scourfield in the Second Rows were outstanding. |