Monmouth's first game of the season was a stirring affair with a 31-21 victory over Division 4 East newcomers, St Joseph's of Cardiff and achieved despite having only thirteen players for part of the game. The sun on the backs of their new kit kindly supplied by MGM Sports may have helped a little too.
In a fiery first five minutes following good pressure centre Layne opened the scoring with a neatly taken dropped goal but Monmouth relaxed and allowed the visitors to move into a 3-7 lead thanks to some weak defence, quickly followed by a further three for handling in the ruck and all this in the first 20 minutes.
Undaunted Monmouth again increased the pressure and using his low centre of gravity and ability to twist and turn, tight head prop Lee Watkins dived over to narrow the gap and very soon after, following a succession of winning rucks were awarded a penalty for offside which full back Dave Brace converted to gain a 11-10 lead.
This stirred St Joseph's and helped by several missed tackles Monmouth were lucky when fly-half Andrew Davies carried over to save a try. From the ensuing five yard scrum the home team won a kick and moved upfield but were soon set back deep into their own territory for lack of convincingly following up a kick ahead.
And then as half time beckoned, quick ball and a wide cut out pass by Davies gave left wing Tom Baker a clean 65 yard try outflanking the defence with style and duly converted by Brace from near the posts.
Almost a secure18-10 half-time lead but some eagerness by a back row player brought a yellow card from a very decisive referee for offside in a kickable position reducing the difference to 18-13 and with ten minutes to face in the second half a man down.
Fired up by their coach and urged to plug the defensive gaps that had been apparent in the first 40 minutes, Monmouth made light of the disadvantage with a gap again being found down the left flank.
When Baker was at last halted, centre Chris Reed was up in support to score near the posts for Brace to again convert and was soon again on target with the boot to stretch the lead to 28-13 with a full 45 yards penalty.
The visitors were not to be outdone though and responded with an unconverted try of their own again as a result of a missed tackle and their chances improved as captain Adam Seymour was adjudged to have made a deliberate knock on as he tried to intercept a pass from the opposing scrum-half but luckily St Joseph's red card for foul play with the boot balanced things somewhat.
When Lee Watkins handled in a ruck, wrongly believing he was on his feet and was entitled to, the yellow card was produced again and the visitors were soon to score another penalty, adding to the tension at 28-21.
But Monmouth were now to play probably their most determined spell coping well with the player shortfall to not only survive the inevitable St Joseph's onslaught, scoring yet another penalty via Brace's reliable boot, but also to last out for a full 6 minutes of injury time justifiably rejoicing in their first win of the season and doing their many sponsors proud who had been invited to see this their first home game. Roll on Pontllanffraith away next week!