It may have been an ideal sunny day for a fast flowing, high scoring game at Caerleon last Saturday but Monmouth, its new coach, players and supporters will have been disappointed with the performance and outcome. Both teams were initially fired up enough for the referee to have to intervene in a substantial fracas within two minutes of the start. But it was Caerleon who were to establish the pattern just five minutes in when from a ruck, with the aid of a rather obvious forward pass, their burly but mobile No 8 scored untouched over 45 swerving metres. In no time at all Monmouth were dragged first to one side and then the other before an easy pick up and dive over brought their second converted try of the game, followed inside the first quarter of an hour by a strong break down the right wing. The supporting three-quarter, despite being tackled short, managed to place the ball for a third try. The relatively easy conversion failed but when Ricketts, now at centre, was drawn in to tackle an opponent in Caerleon's next attack, the overlap was created and another converted try saw Caerleon 29 points up without reply inside the first quarter. The home pack continued to provide the better ball for their backs including a further converted penalty and it was 23 minutes before Monmouth generated a promising move. But the lack of opportunities to run the ball brought, in their eagerness, a long cut-out pass which did not have quite the legs to safely reach a pair of supporting hands with a knock on the result. At full back it was as well that Adam Roberts was on good defensive form because next he gathered a wild back pass to clear the danger with a 40-metre kick into touch while under pressure. Signs of a recovery appeared on the half hour when Monmouth successfully held up a maul to turn over the play but the resulting sortie fizzled out in a further turn-over and more defending to do. A bright moment appeared when the referee eventually realised that the law still requires the ball to be put straight into a scrum but sadly not in favour of Monmouth, who were the ones penalised. An uncontested line-out win by Caerleon in the right hand corner brought a driving maul which was resisted but the successful ruck fed a player who, when tackled, flicked the ball to a teammate in close support for another converted try. The scoring had not ended as missed tackles led to a further breakaway for the final score of the half and a 44-0, six-try lead. Such missed tackles obviously needed to be avoided and greater determination shown if things were to brighten up for Monmouth but the initial kick-off failed to carry the required 10 metres. A penalty mid-field brought a chance and a kick for a long touch went dead but at least the pressure was now on the home team as Monmouth played down the field. After a lengthy injury pause, a five-man line set piece and strong driving maul made good ground but Caerleon won back the ball and position before a series of substitutions seemed to disrupt things, leaving two tight home forwards to combine and canter over for the opening score of the half. Injuries were growing and perversely no-one was allowed to resume the field in place of Gleed, who had a strong game until then, retired concussed on the (strictly correct) grounds that his was not a blood injury, and yet the authorities hope to discourage the potentially brain injured from playing on? Monmouth were now down to 14 men and this seemed to fire them up some more as wing Meredith ran the ball back with vigour but when caught there was soon a three man overlap for Caerleon to stretch the lead further to 58-0. Substitute scrum-half Morgan was now eagerly looking for chances and his pace eventually resulted in a consolation try for captain Luke Hunter, which Matt King converted, but too little too late even though Monmouth's eventual 13 men seemed to be achieving more than their full team had. How much of this was Caerleon complacency, one will not know until the return game in January but the determination shown by Ricketts in defence was now an inspiration to all. Despite this, a lucky bounce following a kicked on tapped back line out brought Caerleon the final say with the conversion of their ninth try for a 65-7 win. One hopes that the game against Caldicot next week on the Sports Ground at 2.30pm will bring better news.