Whilst Monmouth were keen to avoid a blank weekend in their fixture list now they are out of the Welsh Cup, for reasons of continuity and maintaining fitness, the 7-46 lesson they were handed out by Malvern on the benefits of playing together was not quite what they had planned. Having said that whilst Malvern were more obviously better drilled side, despite the fact that Monmouth were initially set back by two early tries driven over at close quarters by a strong and speedy pack they came back to more than hold their own in the latter stages of the half. When 0-17 down Monmouth began to attack with gusto. The back row again gave as good as they got and with new boy Mike Hall excelling on his 1 st XV debut, fly half Huw Adams had plenty of ball to exploit his eye for the gap and pace and his and full back Matt King’s incursions upfield were beginning to rattle the visitors. The forwards welcomed the territorial gain and just prior to half-time there was a sustained period of pressure by the Monmouth pack but the referee in the absence of video replays was reluctant to give Monmouth the benefit of any doubt on or over the Malvern line. On numerous occasions the ball was adjudged to be held up for flanker Ollie Gray and second row Harvey Morgan to name but two. One was on the stroke of half-time causing Monmouth to turn round a full 17 points in deficit. There was hope on the basis of this unrewarded dominance that the second-half and the slight slope would aid a resurgence provided the home team would play more aggressively throughout and with less solo activity and better support work. And this they set about doing. Held up over the line again but not dis-spirited by it, Monmouth at last breached the Malvern goal-line after an exciting period of play. After a sequence of rucks in the shadow of the posts with the goodly crowd screaming for the play to be to the right, Monmouth moved it left seemingly into difficulty but they had not allowed for the ability of captain Andrew Davies to cut inside and wrongfoot the defence. King converted the score and hopes were raised. But around now forced and unforced substitutions began and in practice the core of the pack was progressively lost allowing the stronger Malvern pack to gain the ascendancy in the tight and with long ranging driving mauls. From a long clearance kick they drove over and were soon on the attack again and would have scored bar a stunning tackle by Hall right in the corner saving the day on this occasion. But Malvern were building a head of steam and having won a strike against the head they scored again to extend the lead to 7-29 and then over the next 15 minutes managed three more tries with the last of these rather a gift from a mid-field passing foul up which brought the final score of 7-46. Next week brings the South Africa International and one hopes, a much needed Welsh resurgence but Monmouth will be seeking another friendly to re-build a little upon some of the individual talents that undoubtedly exist in time for the next league game which will be at home on 2 December against Nantyglo. Greater determination and cohesion will be needed then if they are to successfully resume their league programme.
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