High flying Rhiwbina played Monmouth last Saturday and met their match in a close hard fought game. After four losses on the trot this was a do or die game for Monmouth and with the return from injury of several of their former stalwarts hopes were high. Their opening shots were vigorous and Mike Griffiths drove into Rhiwbina territory from a Gareth Morgan kick ahead forcing the visitors to defend illegally. From the ensuing penalty kick Matt King opened the scoring inside the first minute. But spirits were too high and in the fifth minute prop Julian Powell was yellow-carded for being just too lively with his fists and this gave the visitors the time and extra man to regain their composure and punish Monmouth a full ten points from a converted try and a penalty before the playing odds were balanced again. Things settled down and for a while it was very much cut and thrust equally until Monmouth clawed back three points from a penalty by King for a high tackle making the score 6-10 and all within the first 20 minutes. Rhiwbina then began to show their strengths and put Monmouth under all sorts of pressure with quite a few let-offs but Monmouth gave as good as they got too, and it was only by virtue of a drop goal on the stroke of half-time that Rhiwbina were to add to the scores. The Coach told his players that this had been the best period of rugby he had seen in the season’s league and Monmouth could not rely on a short burst of endeavour to overtake Rhiwbina but a concentrated period of error free play over a full 40 minutes of the second half and so it proved. After 20 minutes of ding-dong play Monmouth drove a scrum over the line for No. 8 Adam Seymour to dot the ball down although the conversion failed. But just three minutes later Monmouth from a set piece move Gareth Morgan scythed through the Rhiwbina defence but his pass in the tackle was disrupted and a try went begging. Their ganders were now up though and from an intricate passing movement in which John Powell’s was the best, Matt King was sent goal-ward with only the full back to beat. He accomplished this with a stylish right foot jink and added the extra points to take an 18-13 lead. The next 15 minutes was spell-binding as Rhiwbina began the fight back and what a period of attrition it was. First they reduced the lead to 18-16 with a penalty and a few minutes later were just short with one from near the half-way line but King’s 70 yard clearance set Rhiwbina back again. The tension was building and it showed a little as Monmouth struggled to keep the ball in foreign territory. Maul after maul threatened the Home line but when a penalty was conceded with just a minute to go, fortunately it missed but instead of the catcher touching the ball down his attempted clearance kick merely gave Rhiwbina one last chance but it was not to be. Monmouth had waited a long time for this win and they were not going to concede it now. A deserved win and yet another big challenge next week away to Tredegar Ironsides. With a little luck in the injuries stakes this much improved performance suggests they could be threatening those at the top before long.
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