Monmouth RFC - Three in a Row

The season continued rosy last Saturday for Monmouth when they travelled to Chepstow, their long-standing rivals, and won 12-26 with a display of controlled rugby, particularly in the second half, taking advantage of their host's errors and indiscipline rather than creating too much themselves.

Monmouth as usual started sleepily and within two minutes of the start the nippy home backs had left the Monmouth defence looking flat-footed and five points behind.

Mistakes continued aplenty with knock-ons and weak tackles allowing Chepstow to clearly appear the more threatening but fly-half Dave Croudace luckily was in fine form with the boot and despite regular attacking incursions by Chepstow, had taken Monmouth into a 5-9 lead inside the first half hour with some sweet kicks, the most impressive of which was in response to a cynical late tackle on the kicker himself.

But Chepstow kept up the pressure and the moment Monmouth rested on their laurels presumably looking forward to a half-time lead, Chepstow won a series of rucks stretching the opposing defences to gain a 7-pointer for a 12-9 lead, but there was much injury time to play on the hard dry pitch and Croudace was to square the game 12-12 at the break with another penalty for offside.

A stern talking-to was in order about the need for proactivity rather than patchy reaction, more controlled line-kicking and better first-up tackling and Monmouth came out a changed team irrespective of two potentially damaging changes they had made by then for injury reasons.

Croudace luckily was still his reliable goal-kicking self, taking the lead again within five minutes to 12-15 and then perhaps the best move of the game, - a charge along the right hand line by hooker Mark Jones complemented by a superb dummy sadly failed in the end due to a knock-on in the tackle.

Monmouth now had their tails up attacking the line again and again and arguably crossing it before being driven back before the referee could award the try. The line-out that followed was won, which was something the visitors could not have expected with certainty, and centre Andrew Davies stretched the lead with a try to which Croudace added two more at the end of the third quarter.

The heat was now telling on both packs of forwards but it worst affected the attacking flair of Chepstow and although some eight minutes of injury time was played it merely allowed Monmouth to dig in and earn Croudace two more successful penalty kicks and the Man of the Match award, and Monmouth their third win of the season, this time by 12-26 points.

When it all comes together in terms of intensity and cohesion and some injured players returning,  their season should go from strength to strength. But maybe Talywain, their opponents at Monmouth next week, will not concede penalties so readily to allow Monmouth to stay in the game when their minds are coasting in neutral.