Despite a very boggy playing field, Monmouth had a fine first half to lead Talywain, who had the beating of them in early September, by 33 points to nil at the interval. The lay off in recent weeks because of the weather or International clashes had obviously made the home pack hungry for action with second row John Powell and prop Matt Ricketts leading the charge right from the start. Talywain must have wondered what was happening because at the very first scrum they were driven back yards and then through the home team’s early domination flanker Harvey Morgan crossed after six minutes within range for centre Dave Brace to add the extra points. Talywain briefly rallied only to see a penalty kick go wide and then their morale suffered a big blow as scrum half Gareth Morgan scorched away over almost 50 yards on the poorly defended right flank. The kick under the posts proved a formality for Brace and Monmouth were already 14 points clear inside the first 12 minutes. The plan to keep Talywain down the slope and facing the lowering sun was executed fairly well by fly-half Andrew Davies although errors in the slippery conditions afforded the visitors some relief from time to time. However, half an hour into the game saw left wing Dawid Venter, newly returned from injury, cross for another try in the left hand corner, only to be called back by the touch judge’s raised flag. But from this position Monmouth were to capitalise on the pressure they sustained and No. 8 Adam Seymour, back for the weekend from his studies, going over from the base of the scrum. Brace who was on form this week again added the conversion. But with only ten minutes to half-time Talywain were sent reeling by first a John Powell try on the right which he stretched well for and then one nearer the posts by Harvey Morgan which required a side-step as he too broke through near the line. Brace converted the second of these for a stunning 33-0 half-time lead. One would have assumed the same work rate would have doubled the score at least later but the mind is a fickle thing. Inside five minutes the re-charged visitors benefited from now a slightly complacent Monmouth defence and breaking some tackles and their duck to claw back five points. Monmouth were rattled as their target of keeping a clean score-sheet had gone awry, and soon won a scrum against the head to spur their progress upfield but already both sides were starting to feel the pain in their lungs and legs from such a heavy surface and play was often scrappy by both sides. Down the slope Talywain achieved far more territorial advantage than hitherto but the highlight of the game came with 15 minutes to go when Seymour broke through in midfield near the visitors 10 yard line. When tackled he had the presence of mind and strength to offload to the supporting Brace, who in turn fed scrum-half Morgan to draw the defenders and leave Venter twenty yards to run in at the corner. The kick failed but at least the honours were even in the second half with a try a-piece which on top of the first half scorching of the visitors brought a comfortable 38-5 win for Monmouth. Next week hopefully sees a friendly away at Drybrook followed by International viewings at the Clubhouse, with the Nantyglo postponed game being proposed for re-arrangement in late April before the Club’s tour which this year is to Barcelona. In the meantime, apologies to the eager property investors amongst readers of this column but the seminar referred to last week has been postponed for now but the new date will be advertised in good time.
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