Monmouth Warriors V Newport High

School Old Boys

Last Sunday the Monmouth Warriors (under 13's) travelled away to play Newport HSOB. The conditions were surprisingly good with the temperature much milder than of late.

Straight from the kick off HSOB ran the ball out of defence and before the Warriors could get into their stride they had conceded the first try. The Warriors were continually on the back foot and under severe pressure from the physically superior HSOB pack. However backs and forwards alike stuck manfully to their task with some desperate defending by Joe Bezani, Dan Musselbrook and Morgan Paley allied to excellent defensive kicking by fly half Jacob Webley.

The HSOB had a significant territorial advantage but when the Warriors did break out of the stranglehold even the elusive and speedy Max Senior could not make the try line. In the forward battle Dan Edwards, James Hall and Oscar Hughes fought hard to contain their heavier counterparts but the pressure was relentless.

Eventually the intensity of the HSOB attacks took its toll and the Warriors went further behind to leave the score 12 – 0 at half time.

After the break the pattern of the first half play continued with the Warriors defending their line. Following one fierce attack scrum half Max Davies was forced to leave the field through injury. He was replaced by Ivan Thomas with Ben Zorab taking the no9 position.

Despite some outstanding tackling by Dan Dunmore and Will Korb ably supported by Henry Orchard and Callum Sneddon the HSOB scored two further tries to lead 24 – 0 with three quarters of the game played.

One of the positives to come out of the Warriors performance was their determination to keep on giving 100% to the cause in terms of work rate and commitment.

In the final 10 minutes they dug deep into their last reserves of energy and forced the HSOB to play the majority of the rest of the game within their 22m line.

Forwards Joe Walters, Sean McMahon, Jonathan Clewes and Josh Carpenter secured more of their own ball and they drove forward with renewed vigour. Time and again the Warriors were held up just short of the try line and the final whistle denied them the try their efforts richly deserved.

The Match ended 24 – 0 in favour of HSOB.

In acknowledging the defeat Coach Lloyd Davies was fulsome in his praise of his Teams performance in the face of powerful and strong running opposition.

He singled out centre Dan Dunmore for yet another awesome display of text book and courageous tackling and flanker Will Korb for a performance full of grit and commitment. Ben Zorab was also praised for his performance as stand in scrum half.