A serious doubt arose last Saturday about the prospects of this season’s 1 st XV at Monmouth, when they were well beaten on a wet pitch by a better side on the day. It could have been different, but the home side adapted to their local conditions far better, making their tackles count and keeping the pressure on a hesitant Monmouth side which did not seem to understand how to adapt their normal fast flowing game to the tricky underfoot pitch. Apart from losing an important league game and conceding their first victory to Talywain by 25-12 points, 100 years ago the Monmouth side of that day known as ‘The Invincibles’ because of their formidable performances throughout that season, coincidentally played Talywain and to quote the Beacon then they played at Clawddu in its first Welsh Union match on September 1st, 1906 at Clawddu in what was “ a gruelling match fought out in intense heat” with the result being a draw with 5 points each. Certainly there was low in the sky sunshine which Monmouth chose to play into but in no way was it strong enough to dry the pitch sufficiently for a fast handling game. Monmouth started really well and in four minutes full back Matt King had linked in with a three-quarter move from a scrum to score near the posts and a successful conversion by scrum-half Dave Croudace. Play went to and fro but ten minutes later following several missed tackles Talywain crossed near the right corner and rounded to score near the posts to level the score at 7-7. The pressure grew as Talywain could see which side was making the most mistakes and but for some sound clearances by King the score could have grown more by half-time than the three further points gained from a penalty kick. Talywain were very much playing on mistakes, with Monmouth regularly obliging including knocking on in the backs when the home line was all but open. Fortunately Talywain struggled with the underfoot conditions, too, at times and missed a relatively kickable penalty just before half-time. Overtaking a three point deficit in the second half should not have been beyond Monmouth given that their line-out and particularly scrums were so sound with several strikes against the head, but it was Talywain who were the more eager and with mistakes continuing aplenty, within four minutes of the re-start they laid down the challenge when from a driving maul they crashed over creating a 17-7 gap. Still not out of sight visiting fans might have felt but a simple offside at a ruck and a successfully converted penalty, soon followed by a left wing thrust and a debatable try whilst knocking down the corner flag created a 25-7 buffer ansd a mountain to climb. Try as some individuals might, and captain Kelly Leheman played his heart out, backed up by spasmodic efforts by others, they had obviously left their crampons behind. Despite increasing attempts to drive the play downfield, the best Monmouth could achieve was a try from left wing Tom Baker as he grubber kicked along the line outpacing the Talywain cover defence to touch down three minutes bfore the final whistle. A nasty shock which needs to ensure some serious re-thinking by the team as the winter weather increasingly unfolds but perhaps seeing a win against the All Blacks on the new club-house flat screen this coming Saturday might help raise dampened spirits engendered by the failure to repeat history at Talywain.
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