Monmouth 10 Blackwood Stars 10

FEW people came to watch Monmouth at the Sports Ground last week, presumably because of the televised Rugby World Cup, but those present watched the weakened home side represent the club well, holding Blackwood Stars to a hard fought but fair draw.

Playing down the slope in the first half, the robust visiting pack pressed hard and it took a good relieving kick by Monmouth to initially ease the pressure. Within minutes though, by means of a penalty and a line-out followed by a maul, Blackwood struck down the surprisingly undefended blind-side for an opening score which went unconverted.

Monmouth had to respond quickly, and did so with a slick passing movement in which centre Reed drew his man superbly, only for the opportunity to fizzle out a little further up-field.

Play see-sawed first one way and then the other with the halfway line repeatedly being the common ground. Blackwood were generating the greater pressure through their pack, but their cause was hampered by a woeful weakness at half back, resulting in clumsy mis-kicks to touch and fumbled passing.

The home team stuck to their task and edged nearer, scoring their first points with a penalty kick from 40 metres by full back Gordan.

When Blackwood responded by kicking a penalty into the corner for a line-out, Monmouth stole the ball when the visitors had largely been winning their own put in, but then put their own defence under pressure with a ragged pass back, but managed to clear their line.

In another such clearance, wing Mobbs Morgan chased a bouncing ball into Blackwood’s half, catching the defender in possession. The ball was hacked on again and if he had not been pulled back without the ball wing Churches would have scored but instead it was his centre partner Parsons who dabbed the loose ball down for Gordan to take the lead to 10-5 with his reliable boot as the break beckoned.

Blackwood ran the kick-off back at Monmouth, building pressure all the while and with their backs now producing greater sparkle than hitherto. Twice they were rebuffed on the line but eventually the home defence was overcome halfway out on the left with the scores now level at 10-10 as Blackwood’s kicking let them down again.

White had by now been switched to his more appropriate scrum half position and Monmouth began to let the ball flow through King at fly half to their backs with the game livening up considerably but handling errors repeatedly let both sides down.

Blackwood still excelled in mauling but King saved the day on one occasion when he stole the ball and initiated a good passing movement which relieved the pressure but ended with someone knocking on.

With only five minutes of normal time left Monmouth were pressing hard but ignoring supporting runners helped Blackwood defend down the right when a score looked possible.

Monmouth were now throwing everything they had into the mix and the last few minutes saw them camped on the visitors’ line. First, running into one’s own man prevented a score and almost immediately Blackwood passed wildly along the line under pressure direct into touch in goal. Try as they might, scrum after scrum could not bring a score and the final whistle confirmed a 10-10 tie: a fair result with hindsight, but a tremendous credit to all those Monmouth players who had stepped up a level from the Druids that day.