Monmouth moved a step nearer to recovery last Saturday despite coming second best on yet another icy day to St Joseph's of Cardiff. The bonus point they gained whilst losing 14-10 may come to serve them well in the last days of the season and some players are again finding their form with one even sparkling.

Monmouth kicked off on a questionably playable pitch almost immediately proven by the way the recipient slipped whilst not even under pressure, and this allowed the visitors to initially gain some territorial advantage in front of a large band of travelling spectators.

Wing Dave Brace nearly put them in the lead with a centrally placed 40 yard plus penalty but the ball rebounded from the bar and the game swung to and fro for some time in a hard fought equal contest.

But then the referee began to exert his authority issuing two yellow cards, the first for a Monmouth tackler debatably lying on the man with the ball and the other for the home team's scrum-half for taking the law into his own hands with the boot.

St Joseph's crept ahead first with a penalty and then another but the most significant event before half-time was when their scrum-half led the charge in physically attacking Monmouth's No,8 Griffiths for perceived earlier foul play on his part but ending up with a red card for his second yellow card offence. This should have been the spur Monmouth needed but paradoxically it rallied the home team more.

Half-time and the encouragement to become more 'street-wise' and to protect their own ball more in contact came and went and it was soon a case of having to defend and defend again. Young full back Ricketts showing immense pluck for one so young made some sparkling runs out of defence to recover position but it was some weak tackling 12 minutes after the re-start not of his own making that let St Joseph's in.

They missed the kick but now with an 11-0 deficit Monmouth began to put a few phases together and run the ball rather than kick it away, Matt King standing in at scrum-half made an excellent break but it caught his team-mates unawares knocking the ball on when a try was in prospect and then a further set back as St Joseph's dropped an excellent goal.

Monmouth's front row continued to get stuck in seeing off a couple of props in the process and flanker Stacey Edwards again led the way with his foraging and low level drives into the opposing defence.

Scrum followed scrum and then the ball flew out to the right wing for Brace to score in the right corner, only to be frustrated by the touch judge claiming he had been taken into touch when he must have been the only man on the ground who felt so.

This was Monmouth's chance and following some further ragged scrums which the home team tried to disrupt in illegal desperation the referee's frustration showed and Monmouth were awarded a penalty try which Brace duly converted.

With just under ten minutes to go Monmouth got stuck in, kicking a further Brace penalty awarded after five minutes for obstruction but St Joseph's gave it their all and Monmouth's last chance went begging when after a strong run out of defence an attempted TV-style one-handed pass went to ground.

It was perhaps fitting that it was the home team on the attack as the final whistle sounded because their 14 men had given their all but the seeds or re-generation were definitely visible in Monmouth's play but they will need some spring-like weather between now and Saturday if they are to grow enough to beat Llandaff whom they entertain at the Sports Ground next week.