AS speculated last week, the new playing strip presented to Monmouth RFC 1st XV by Lexus Cardiff last Saturday did raise the team's spirits and their dogged performance resulted in a 13-6 home win against Llandaff. Luckily the weather was the best one can expect in December and despite the prior days of heavy rain the underfoot surface allowed for an exciting often end to end game. Monmouth opened well, putting Llandaff immediately on the back foot, and it was a mere two minutes into the game when fly-half Dave Croudace was part of a three-quarter move, diving over the line untouched, and near enough to the posts for a relatively easy conversion. The pressure continued and Llandaff were forced to try and slow down the game illegally with a player not releasing the ball following a tackle to bring Croudace's tally to ten points to nil after only six minutes of play. Llandaff picked up the challenge as Monmouth may have relaxed a little and were unfortunate to miss two penalties in succession. They were even more frustrated when they drove through into the right hand corner but Russell Hoggins saved the day by fly-hacking the ball dead and all this in the first quarter. Llandaff were a match for Monmouth in the set pieces, making for a good hard game, and their No.8 was quite devastating on the burst, but each side, thanks to considerable effort on either part was unable to convincingly make sufficient inroads through the other's defences to put more points on the board before half-time, although Llandaff came close with yet another missed penalty. Despite Monmouth's bright start, if Llandaff had kicked their kicks, a 10-9 score might have been a fairer way to turn around, but it is points on the board that count not what might have been. Llandaff came out firing a little stronger in the second half and within two minutes of the re-start had clawed back three points from a penalty for offside after their line had suffered a real battering but Monmouth's defence was sound and did not crack. Resilience was the watchword and although Llandaff spun the ball wide and at pace, some dogged tackling particularly by the Monmouth centres including one fearsome one by Andrew Davies which brought applause from those spectators who had avoided the Christmas shopping, kept the visitors out. The Monmouth pack stood their ground conceding only one further penalty, with the experienced second rows Powell and Lehmann providing the hard core. Hoggins made many penetrative charging runs and flanker Mike Griffiths, supported well by newly returned from injury Ollie Gray, injected much needed back row vigour. Most players were sharp and the eventual 13-6 was well earned under considerable duress in a half in which little seemed to go their way from the match official. When it was necessary to substitute, if anything the side became stronger. Such a performance will help build confidence for the very difficult away game against second in the table Risca next Saturday even though Croudace who had helped widen the gap some more with a further kick for a personal match total of 13 points will now be absent for many weeks because of his Army duties. However, given the flair shown by the other backs in general, and some impressive counter-attacks by full back Matt King in particular, they should be able to overcome his absence, although the goal- kicking may be less sound. The pressure will be off in the next home game which it is hoped will be a friendly against Gloucester side Gordon League on 23 December providing good preparation for the traditional Boxing Day Games with the Druids away against Usk in the morning and the 1st XV at home hopefully for the double at 2.30 in the afternoon. Our picture shows the Monmouth first team players, proudly wearing their new kit.