After several weeks without a meaningful game because of International weekends and clashes of League and Cup fixtures, last Saturday was the best opportunity for a while for Monmouth RFC to get back to winning ways with the visit of Brynithel who are at serious risk of relegation.

But the visitors came determined that they would not do down without a fight, and with the assistance of a dubious penalty try awarded to them with only ten minutes of ordinary time left, ran out 16-20 winners to the great disappointment of the good home crowd.

Initially, Monmouth took a while to settle down with mistakes aplenty but glimpses of good individual play became apparent such as John Powell jumping well at the front of the line, flanker Ollie Gray foraging well at the break-down and then progressively the whole of the pack as they began to dominate the opposing eight in the scrum.

Things almost clicked on a few occasions but for poor final passes and then an overlap was completed at the end of the first quarter with slick passing to wing Dave Brace who scored the first points of the match in the left hand corner. With this five point opener things were looking promising.

But Brynithel were not to be outdone and immediately rallied kicking a penalty awarded for a Monmouth player going over the top at a ruck and worse still followed a long clearance kick which benefited from the wind and the hard pitch, and full back Rhys Ricketts ran away from his support when counter-attacking and was adjudged to have held onto the ball after the tackle resulting in the visitors taking a 5-6 lead.

In the to and fro nature of this game Brace responded within minutes with a successful penalty kick to regain the lead but when he missed another just before half-time, it was all to play for in the second half at 8-6.

And in no time after the re-start some alarm bells began to ring when Brynithel failed with a penalty kick and then Gray was sent to the sin-bin for allegedly 'spear–tackling' an opponent. With a one man advantage Brynithel surged forward and drove over to take their lead to 8-13.

Monmouth knuckled down but it was another ten minutes before the pressure on the Brynithel line brought another successful penalty from Brace which narrowed the gap to two points, and then No.8 Mike Griffiths became quite fired up after a quiet first half and determinedly broke downfield. The inter-passing and mauling from his supporting forwards was quite joined up and when released to the backs the ball was switched to substitute wing Tom Baker cutting in from the right to go over untouched from some 35 yards.

At 16-13 it was going to be a long haul as the Brynithel forwards strove to get back on equal terms, but whilst defending a scrum ten yards or so out from their posts, the ball appeared to come out of the back of it by at least three yards, but when replacement flanker Stacey Edwards picked up the ball, to the amazed delight of Brynithel and their supporters the referee awarded them a penalty try although quite how certainly a try would otherwise have been scored was hard to see.

For the remaining 15 minutes including time added on Monmouth battered the visitors line but never once looked like cleanly executing a move. The frequent penalties near the line brought no warnings to the fiercely defensive tacklers and spoilers but to Brynithel's credit they fought to the end to earn their important three points with the glimmer of relief from relegation it brings.

Monmouth on the other hand still have to work out how they combine to put points on the board when they are so dominant up front. Playing with more purpose and passion would be a start in the four league games to have to play before the season ends.