IN the most unusual of circumstances

Monmouth progressed to

the third round of the Swalec Bowl

by beating Girling RFC 29-10 at

home last Saturday.

To the credit of the visitors, they

turned up despite being three men

short and Monmouth, wanting to

play rather than claim a walkover

loaned them three players and a

substitute who were later to play

their hearts out for their new

found team-mates.

Assuming the disruption would

affect the team facing them, Monmouth

were quickly set back on

their heels when they failed to

gather the kick-off cleanly allowing

Girling to first move the ball

across to the right and then when

blocked, reversed things, went left

and scored the first try of the

game. Unfortunately they had not

brought a kicker so the conversion

went awry.

Girling however, were not fazed

and it took a penalty on Monmouth's

22m line to relieve the

pressure exerted by the vigorous

play of the visitors and the speed

with which they broke away when

given the chance.

Having gathered their composure

Monmouth began to put

moves of their own together typified

best in the early stages by full

back Matt King side-stepping

three would-be tacklers to ship the

ball to back row Mike Griffiths

who made great ground with a

typical charging run.

And from another such run from

15m out a quarter of an hour in,

he was to score his first try which

Tabb failed to improve upon.

Apathy or pace of the game was

having an impact on the home

performance as the larger of the

home pack were strung out across

the field as play moved away from

them but fortunately King was

enjoying the gaps and took Monmouth

into the lead 10-5 with a

try of his own.

For a wiry lad Mobbs Morgan

withstood many a fierce clattering

and Pete Saran was whole-hearted

in virtually everything he tried.

The Girling line was neared several

times during this spell only

for the attacks to be thwarted and

a Monmouth move on the left led

to nothing when the ball was

kicked dead on one occasion.

But as the half-time break

neared, from a ruck deep in

Girling territory, the ball was

moved left and with an overlap

available to run in a further score

play was called back for a

forward pass.

Griffiths had already had words

with the referee and when he

questioned this he was sent from

the field for the statutory ten minutes.

Lungs filled and legs rested, the

second half set off at pace and the

ball was spun across the line to

right wing Connors to speed his

way to a score which extended the

lead to 15-5.

Following this the newly rested

Griffiths again used his strength

to break through a tackle to score

in the 49th minute near enough to

the posts for the kick to count.

Girling responded by making

their presence felt until Monmouth

ran from their own 22m

and Connors called for the ball.

White who was now playing

scrum-half heard the call and

threw a long pass from which Connors

made a good 40 metres, cutting

inside before the play fizzled

out.

Play was now breaking up as

the continuing pace found out tiring

legs but this is when experience

shows and centre Andrew

Davies cleverly wrong-footed the

defence and fed the ball back

inside to White who rode a tackle

to score.

Girling were still in the fight

and it was a credit to the spirit of

their patched up side that they

were next to score a consolation

try leaving Davies and King to

probe away for another of their

own but 29-10 it was to stay.

There are not likely to be the

same complications when Oakdale

are the visitors for a league game

on the Sports Ground this coming

Saturday.