Monmouth RFC - Defeat in Friendly

The heavy rain of late seemed to have afflicted England less than Wales with the kind offer of a ‘friendly' away against Old Patesians of Cheltenham instead of the planned Swalec league game against New Tredegar whose pitch was unplayable.

But Old Pats. Are obviously hardier than some and entertained Monmouth last Saturday on a pitch which at times bogged down the heavier players but it was a game which brought four tries and much needed game time before next week's Cup match following the long lay off during the Autumn International period.

With the referee wishing to start early to catch an early flight to his home in Spain and Monmouth arriving late it was probable that the visitors would take some time to get going but playing with the benefit of a considerable slope just ten minutes into the game following a penalty into the left corner, John Powell won the ensuing line-out and fellow 2^nd row man Will Copley was driven over for the first score which was Croudace failed to convert from the boggy surface.

Within minutes Monmouth's hand was strengthened with the award of a yellow card to an Old Pat. Player for tackling a person as he jumped for a high ball, but this merely seemed to stir the home team and soon they were in range for a successful penalty kick for not releasing, from the good boot of their fly-half.

Monmouth had a chance in return but the wind held the ball up short of the goal and then Patesians ran the ball in on the drier left flank on the stroke of half-time from which distance the fly-half again bisected the posts for 10-5 lead.

With the slope now against them, Monmouth had the slope to face and were intent upon upping the pressure to populate the more playable parts of the field but then Monmouth lost a player for ten minutes for allegedly joining a maul from the side.

At the line-out from the ensuing kick Patesians used their one man advantage and drove over from a maul with the damaging addition of a conversion.

At 17-5 the home team were looking strong but when Monmouth were restored to a full 15 players, they made their way back up-field and were soon hammering their opponents' line initially without success until scrum-half Gareth Morgan found the space to dive over for a try which fly-half Dave Croudace converted.

17-12 now looked promising until they slipped back a further three points for pulling down in the line which was almost immediately regained by a further successful kick from Croudace.

20-15 kept the pressure on with a quarter of the game left and then in a mad moment Old Pats pounced upon a ball tapped down from a defensive line-out and again their accurate kicker stretched their advantage to 27-15 which made the task almost beyond reach as darkness descended.

But all was not totally lost as with one final flurry left wing Dewi Lane ran strongly to be stopped only yards short sustaining a cut eye-brow in the process. Quickly patched up, he returned to the field in time to join in another move deep into the left corner by centre Andrew Layne, but just as the wing-man was to receive a scoring pass he was tackled without the ball leaving the referee no option but to award a penalty try which Croudace again converted.

27-22 brought Monmouth a slim late chance but the ‘final call for boarding' came through the ether and the final whistle blew.

The run-out was timely given the importance of next week's home Cup game against Crickhowell at 2.30p.m. on this occasion on Chippenham due to a fixture clash with the Town football team, but wherever the game is played the Young Rugby players who kick-off for the two curtain raisers from 1.30p.m. will be proud to be chosen for this Club initiative which should provide recognition of the young players' energy and skills whilst also ensuring good support for the Seniors as they seek a place in the 4^th Round of the Swalec Bowl.