THE Druids travelled to deepest Gloucester to face Coney Hill RFC in a keenly contested fixture.
On a large playing area, well grassed, Monmouth kicked off and pressed strongly.
The Coney Hill forwards proved worthy opposition. They more than held their own, especially at the line outs. The young home team half backs were real live wires and probed the Druids' defence. But the Druids held together well to deny Coney hill.
Suddenly Monmouth scored against the run of play to break the deadlock. Breaking from their own half the ball reached Simon Williams and he ran and kicked through to the Coney Hill goal line. Williams won the scramble with the home team full back to touch down for a try which was unconverted.
Coney Hill responded by posing the Druids all sorts of problems. They forced Monmouth into giving away penalties and they converted two of these. Monmouth somehow counter attacked and they also scored two penalty goals.
Coney Hill scored a converted try just before half time. It started from a maul on the Monmouth 10 metre line. They drove to the line and touched down close to the posts.
At the turn around Coney Hill led 13-11 and had the better of the first period. The Druids could not muster any concerted play as good tackling stifled out any hope of constructive play.
Monmouth made a substitution when hooker Matt Ricketts suffered a leg injury and was replaced by Andy Griffiths. Further replacements were made by the inclusion of Harvey Morgan, Gareth Morgan and Alan Morgan.
This spurred the Druids and they enjoyed their best spell. Bouts of inter passing caused the home side real problems. From one of these attacks centre John Jeffs side-stepped through a cluster of players to score a try near the posts. This was converted by Simon Williams to give the Druids the lead by 18 points to 13.
Coney Hill attacked furiously trying to regain the lead. As Coney Hill pressed the Druids' line the referee awarded a scrum to Coney Hill. Coney Hill won possession and moved the ball on the blind side to score in the corner and draw the scores level.
The conversion kick failed to give the fair result of a draw. The Druids must be more constructive which will improve their playing record and coupled with their undoubted backbone give better results.
The Monmouth team was: Rob Long, Kevin Ridley, John Jeffs, Ben Smith, Steve Finn, Simon Williams, Gabby Hilu, Mark Higgins, Matt Ricketts, Craig Nicholas, Andy Scourfield (Capt), Andy Jones, Alan Morgan, Leon Lloyd, Harvey Morgan, Gareth Morgan, Bato Symonds and Andy Griffiths.