Saturday’s game away against bottom of the league Trinant was vital for the home team but just as important for Monmouth as they strove to keep up their promotion prospects. But it wasn’t just the players’ anxious state that led to a very disrupted game but the presence of a refereeing assessor and an apparent desire to work through each and every paragraph of the law book by the referee but without seeming consistency or priority that led to a highly unsatisfactory win by 24-3 points for Monmouth. A vigorous game without wanton thuggery but with skirmishes galore and too much dissent, resulted in four excellent visitor tries to nil, backed up by five yellow cards and one red in front of a disbelieving and dissatisfied crowd. The opening stages saw Monmouth pinned in the bottom left hand corner of the field as much by the whistle as any particular pressure, although they were lucky to survive an early penalty kick attempt. Certainly the stop start nature of the game did little for Monmouth’s style of play and it was a full 25 minutes before the Trinant defence was broken by a flowing three-quarter move in which centre Dave Brace saw a gap and accelerated through it to put the first five points on the board. He struck the conversion well but it drifted away to the right at the last moment. Despite trying hard and having the better of the scrums, it was three minutes into injury time in the first half before the Trinant defence again cracked. Following a series of rucks nearing the home team 22, scrum-half Gareth Morgan ran flat across the approaching defensive line, dummying to team-mates as he went. Previous moves of this nature had resulted in team members coming into the line at an angle but this time the defence stood off the ball carrier enough for him to dart through a gap to run clear to the line. Dave Brace added the two points for a 12-0 score at the interval. Having been asked by their Coach for continued commitment and a maintained intensity, the second half began well with 2nd row John Powell prominent at the drop-out resulting in a charged down kick. The pressure continued until Monmouth chose to kick at goal which failed, when with hindsight a kick to touch in the corner may have upped the anti further with a side that was clearly rattled. Trinant rallied after a mis-kick straight into touch by Monmouth and amazingly one of their flankers was yellow-carded for not allowing quick release right under the visitors’ posts when surely a penalty was sufficient punishment. This undoubtedly unhinged the home team because the next significant event resulted in a ‘handbags’ fracas and some back-chat from their hooker and a centre which saw both of them being sent to the sin-bin. With only 12 players Trinant resorted to highly vigorous play and an apparent straightforward clearing out at an ensuing attacking ruck resulted in flanker Stuart Boylan also being sent from the field for alleged foul play. Trinant responded well and it was a near thing when Monmouth were grateful to clear their line under intense pressure. Monmouth’s players know how to dog it when in difficulty and their back row in particular put their bodies on the line, resulting in flanker Stacey Edwards being awarded a deserved man of the match award. Prop Julian Powell was lucky to incur only a penalty for dissent half way through the second half with which Trinant were to break their duck, but soon left wing Gareth Jones was to kick ahead controlling the ball well to score at the other end to stretch Monmouth’s lead to 17-3. Trouble continued for the referee as another altercation led to Trinant’s fourth yellow card and a red one for Monmouth’s substitute 2nd Row Matt Edwards who appeared to be defending his captain from a beating. Sanity was restored when Monmouth kept up their forward pressure, releasing the ball for a sparkling three-quarter move with slick handling particularly by centre Andrew Lane and full-back Matt King. When the move was at last stopped a mistake by Trinant saw flanker Boylan charging over the line to touch down the loose ball. Protests that he had not correctly grounded the ball were correctly discounted by the referee. After all a penalty try would have been even more appropriate as Boylan’s strength took him to the ball despite considerable attempts to drag him back without the ball. Brace completed the 24-3 scoring by adding the conversion leaving Trinant in a bigger relegation mess and keeping alive Monmouth’s chances of a promotion. Nantyglo it is though for next week’s Shire Conservatories sponsored match at home and a much bigger challenge from a team which has steadily improved all season.
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