At Machen last Saturday, Monmouth had a largely experimental back line due to holidays, weddings and those other distractions that arrive along with the lightening evenings.

But it led to the appearance in the Monmouth 1st XV for the first time together, the Price Brothers, all of whom gave a good account of themselves, promising big things to come in future years.

But the game started poorly with the usual early lack of application.

Machen pressurised early and were deprived of a try by good defending of a stretching cross kick to the right corner, but from an ensuing scrum and then line-out the visitors' concentration was insufficient to prevent an early try near the posts straight from a training ground set piece move which attracted no tackles. The easy conversion made for a 7-0 start within two minutes.

Monmouth realised their mistake and immediately set about achieving redress through the strength of their pack with Lee Watkins revelling in the opportunity to start the game with loose head Stockley absent and some of the older heads making it physically tough for their young opponents.

And within ten minutes through a succession of drives from the base of successive rucks first Watkins, then hooker Mark Jones nearly crossed the line and finally flanker Stacey Edwards dived over. Right wing Matt King added the extras to draw even .

Play see-sawed between opposing halves of the pitch with lengthy deep kicks by both sides and the occasional deep burst by individuals such as prop Craig Nicholls and soon after by full-back Rhys Ricketts but neither were adequately supported and at least one of them should have resulted in a score if they had been.

And Monmouth were to pay the penalty because when yet another towering kick down field was mis-fielded the loose ball that resulted brought Machen's second converted try of the game and a 14-7 half-time lead.

But all was not lost as the constant drizzle would make for mistakes and more aggression and support of one another should allow the dominant pack to wear down their opponents provided attention was paid to discipline.

But the game went downhill almost from the re-start with regular skirmishes and off the ball antics and generally little positive to report. Twenty minutes of this brought eventually a red card for a Machen player for headbutting which should have been the opener for Monmouth to take charge but if anything it roused Machen the more, as is often the case, led superbly by their front row .

Machen spoiled well but Monmouth raised their game with five minutes to go and occasional quicker thinking may have resulted in a score. Things became quite frantic during this phase with Monmouth in the ascendancy and playing very near the line only for Machen to turn over the ball. The pressure was maintained but with seconds to go Machen kicked very deep to ease the pressure and the unnecessary late tackle on the kicker resulted in a penalty from where the ball landed which sadly was now in kickable range, gained Machen a 17-7 victory and lost Monmouth a losing bonus point. Mid table Monmouth might be but there are some tough games to come and every available point must be taken if they are not to make things difficult for themselves.

The good news was the way the pack ground out the yards and the back row kept chasing but it was the verve of the youngsters and the promise it offered that was the most encouraging.