Monmouth RFC - Passive scrums do for Monmouth

Playing into a fierce wind from the start Monmouth needed to contain opponents Abertillery Blaenau Gwent before having the benefit of the slope and wind later.

When hooker Mark Jones made a trade mark charge along the left touch line to crash over from 30 yards for the first try of the game after a very competitive first 13 minutes their task was made somewhat less difficult.

Helped by the visitors propensity to kick too long, provided Monmouth could avoid such errors in the second half and defend against some lively threequarter attacks all was looking good at this stage. The Monmouth front five were looking their overpowering selves and the visiting tight head was struggling big time. Time should surely tell provided the visitors were contained whilst they had the wind.

But metaphorical dark clouds brought more than nasty showers when first open side flanker Ollie Gray newly returned from injury transgressed at a ruck to earn Monmouth's first, and perhaps harsh, yellow card and then the visiting left wing began to run more and more making big inroads into the home defence who struggled to cope with his pace and physique.

Monmouth crucially survived the loss of the flanker but eventually the pressure on the left flank proved too great when the defence was bamboozled by the left wing who had the sense when eventually held up to pop the ball to a colleague up in support who ran the ball in at a kick-able distance to take a 5-7 lead as the game entered an extensive injury time.

Now was the time to dig really deep but Abertillery had other ideas and again it was their winger  who caused the damage making good ground. The scrambling defence stopped the move, just, but when Abertillery recycled the ball flanker Ton Homer who has been most lively of late dived to intercept the pass but was adjudged to have intefered with play whilst off his feet and a penalty try was the outcome.

5-14 was a reasonable challenge particularly if Monmouth used its forward strength and its kicking out of hand was well controlled but the very first attacking kick was clumsy and one began to doubt.

As the game progressed and things did not go to plan players began to bicker and criticize one another with many examples of ‘the pot calling the kettle black' when tighter team work was what was needed. Mistakes were inevitable in such blustery and greasy conditions with Monmouth needing to rise above them but sadly they did not.

Ten minutes from the re-start there was a glimmer of reassurance as Dave Brace kicked a good penalty and when Abertillery in turn lost a player to a yellow card at the start of the last quarter there was all to play for.

But the dark clouds returned big time as the visitors who were slightly depleted from the start lost a front row forward and claimed passive scrums, thus removing Monmouth's greatest hope of capitalising on all the forward pressure they had built up to that point. The game then entirely changed in its nature and Monmouth were once again left chasing a game they could so easily have won.

With Monmouth's particular strength being its scrummaging and three teams out of the eight played to date now having claimed passive scrums mid-game, whilst one can understand the need for safety, one has to suspect it is more and more becoming a tactic for teams not so well blessed as Monmouth. The benefit of a good pack is the cumulative pressure they exert across a whole game and not just fleeting uncomfortable moments within it.

With the Youth winning handsomely and the Druids losing out to arch rivals Abergavenny, it was a mixed weekend but the trip next Saturday to Dollgellau in the next round of The Bowl should at least provide an opportunity of fresh pastures even if only Monmouth's Quiz Team will understand the lingo!