THE Druids welcomed Llanishen RFC of Cardiff to Chippenham Mead in a hastily arranged fixture.

Llanishen had the better of the first 30 minutes as their strong running backs made large in-roads into Monmouth territory. The Druids defended resolutely to hold out the visitors' attack.

However, Llanishen were not to be denied. From an attack on the left the winger crossed for a try which was unconverted.

Further Llanishen pressure caused Monmouth to give away a penalty and they successfully converted to make the score 0-8.

Monmouth counter attacked immediately and looked threatening. From a scrummage won untidily by Llanishen the Druids' flank forward Dave Morgan kicked through to cause panic in the visitors' defence. Morgan took advantage to dribble the ball over the goal line and won the race for the touch down. Simon Williams added the extra points to make the score 7-8.

At the end of the first half Llanishen took control of the match through direct running and clever support. They scored two more tries as the Druids ran out of tacklers to increase their lead to 20-7 at half time.

In the second half Monmouth woke themselves up and became more determined. They won much of the line out ball through Andy Scourfield and drove hard to press Llanishen. They had a lot of the game, but the visitors' defence was determined.

However, Leighton Phillips, the Monmouth hooker, forced his way over for a well deserved try which was converted by Simon Williams.

As hard as they tried Monmouth could not score again and Llanishen scored another converted try to make the final score 27-14.

By their second half performance the Druids will be encouraged but they must realise that to win matches they must work harder together. Mark Hunter had a fine game for Monmouth.

A clean game, well refereed by Mr Gower of Raglan, gave the small crowd much to cheer.

The Monmouth side was Steve Finn, Kevin Ridley, Paul Downing, Ben Smith, Dan Gilbert, Simon Williams, Ian Jeffs, Bato Symonds, Leighton Phillips, Mark Reed, Paul Scourfield, Andy Scourfield (Capt), Mark Hunter, Peter Bell, Dave Morgan and Craig Nicholas.