WRU East One

Monmouth 1st XV 3 Blaina RFC 31

THE visitors to the Monmouth Sportsground on Saturday were Blaina on what was a poignant occasion, as both teams remembered Alan Tucker, who recently passed away, reports PETE WALTERS.

Alan, a former player of Blaina, a club man at Monmouth that included coaching the Youth Team in the ‘90s, and a respected local policeman, had a glorious history in rugby, the pinnacle of which was playing for Gwent against the All Blacks in 1972.

The strong breeze blowing down the pitch in the first half played a part in the result, but it was Blaina who used the conditions to their advantage best.

High chip-kicks by Monmouth from defence gained no ground nor put their opponents under any real pressure, although when full back Lewis Bates kicked to touch he did achieve some very good territorial gains.

Blaina fly-half Richard Powell made good use of the wind with his kicking and Monmouth were very much under pressure in the first half, during which they leaked three tries and a staggeringly long penalty kick conversion on the wind from the No 10, in return for a mere three-point penalty kick of their own from Bates.

Monmouth dug deeper in the second half however, but surprisingly ignored the opportunity at the outset of a penalty kick near to the posts following a 10m reversal for Blaina dissent.

A kick to the corner instead was overthrown which when cleared resulted in a fracas amongst the players.

From then on the Monmouth scrum and line-out were noticeably under pressure.

Their defence however was dogged and the only score in the second half was a fortuitous one when a visiting player intercepted an overhead pass, which he ran in near the posts to gain Blaina the four-try bonus point they sought for a 31-3 victory over their hosts.

Occasional individual breaks out of defence by Monmouth showed some promise, as did their courageous tackling, but always to no avail, even when a lone kick up-field was pounced upon by Monmouth’s right wing Will Scriven, who all but scored in the right-hand corner but unfortunately knocked on over the line as he was tackled.

Whilst it has been a testing start to the new season, following a narrow 22-20 loss to Newport HSOB in the opening game, this is a young Monmouth team who will surely come good as they gel over the coming weeks.

Elsewhere in Monmouth's division, Abergavenny were blitzed 51-3 at Nelson, while newly relegated Brynmawr suffered a second successive defeat, going down 15-5 at home to Blackwood.

Monmouth have a bye in the Division 1 Cup next week so it’ll be back to Division 1 duties when they face last season’s Division 2 champions Blackwood on the Sportsground on Saturday, October 4, kick off 2.30pm.

Brynmawr host Abergavenny this Saturday (September 27), with the derby rivals both looking to get off the mark.

Elsewhere, Usk were beaten 46-14 at home by Abercarn in East 2 at the weekend, while Chepstow’s unbeaten start to their East 3 campaign came unstuck in their third game, losing 21-7 at Nantyglo.

Usk are without a game this weekend, but Chepstow visit Caerleon.

Monmouth School 1st XV also played on Saturday, losing out 34-12 at home to Bromsgrove.