Monmouth RFC had an eventful weekend when the forecast weather was not as bad as elsewhere in South Wales, the team management made sure the ground was playable by extensive and judicious forking of the Chippenham turf and the referee chose not to attend. After frantic one-sided conversations with ansaphones it became clear that the league game could not proceed but a practice game would ensue refereed by an Abercarn official. Abercarn, unrecognisable from the away game earlier in the season, came desperately wanting a win but in the first half it was all Monmouth as the ball flowed back and for across the pitch whilst the visiting players got to know each other. But despite much possession, many winning rucks and quick ball, Monmouth failed to take advantage of their superiority and scored just the one try before half time thanks to a neat inside flip to the ever-supportive No 8 Adam Seymour. Full back Matt King felt he had converted, the totality of the touch judges were not convinced, but the stand-in referee decided otherwise. Five points for all that effort was less than Monmouth deserved but the answer was to score more and that they did not, but in a fast and furious game the referee was having difficulty in policing the tackle area, permitting spoiling tactics galore as a result. But he had at least volunteered to provide a game when the alternative was shopping or some extra weekend beer so credit must be afforded where it is due. And then the second half began with some distinctly new and superior Abercarn substitutes and a half-asleep Monmouth let in two good tries in the space of a few minutes only. Lack of concentration meant missed tackles on pacey bursts through the right side of Monmouth’s centre with little or no cover defence, and it was as well that Monmouth woke up or it would have been more had they not realised the extent of the new second half threat. It gradually came together, despite frequent blasts on the whistle for penalty infringements and once Monmouth had got past the dropped balls stage of trying to move the ball around again, Abercarn were having to resort to more basic methods of frustrating the home team. Following on major bout of fisticuffs where an Abercarn flanker appeared to want to fight the whole Monmouth pack single handedly, despite his (kind) yellow card award for a ten minute cooling down period, it became apparent that when he left the field he was ‘substituted’ by Abercarn, giving them 15 players still which the referee corrected when it was politely pointed out to him. Monmouth were now in the ascendancy moving the ball about at will and soon 2 nd Row Russell Hoggins was on hand to charge over. With the successful conversion by King, Monmouth had five minutes or so to turn the tables but Abercarn were not going to give in easily throwing everything into defence legitimately and otherwise. At last the breakthrough appeared to come when scrum half Gareth Morgan executed his trade-mark dart up the touch line. With only one defender to beat he cleverly chipped the ball over him only to be taken out of play by a distinctly late tackle for which the referee awarded a kick on the goal-line where the ball landed. Quite why this was not a penalty try when Morgan was certain to score was unclear but when the penalty was dithered over, it was all too late. The game descended into farce with people fighting on the floor and Monmouth being penalised for failing to release the ball as the final whistle came as a relief at least to Abercarn. Still a reasonable crowd was entertained by some lively rugby, the rain did not win on this occasion, although perhaps the volunteer referee did, and it gave some very frustrated players a work-out if nothing else. It will be the replayed league game that will count when hopefully Monmouth can once again play the rugby but this time convert it to points on the board (and the league table.) International tickets are now all allocated and available at the Club-house but for anyone who has missed out, there are still some tickets available for the Gentleman’s Dinner on Friday 8 February prior to the Scotland match.
|