WRU National League 3 East A - Monmouth 36 Blackwood Stars 0

MONMOUTH RFC continued their promising start to the season on Saturday, blowing away their opponents with a 36-0 bonus point win.

With the Sportsground draining so well, there was little chance of Storm Brian forcing a postponement to the league match against visitors Blackwood All Stars.

Instead the strong winds, combined by the power of Monmouth’ front five, pushed the home side over the line, as they closed to within two points of league leaders Newport HSOB.

The first score came early as the referee began laying down his ground rules, and Monmouth benefitted from a successful kick by wing Matt Tabb in the gusting wind in return for a ’no arms’ tackle.

Playing down the field the home pack were putting Blackwood under pressure with ruck after ruck until the visitors again transgressed. This time, the wind that Tabb had allowed for dropped at the last second, and the ball drifted past the upright.

The visiting defenders were almost living offside in their determination to defend and on their third warning they lost a player to the first of several yellow cards to come in the game.

This time caution prevailed and following the penalty kick to touch, the Monmouth pack drove from the line-put and over for hooker Dean Bartlett to score. Tabb added the extras.

At 10-0, and with the intelligent boot of Paul Emanuelli keeping the visitors pegged largely in their 22, an opportunity arose to score on the right but Hawkins, who was energetic throughout, squandered a seven on five situation by cutting back inside rather than continuing the flow.

Scrum half Dan White was most energetic and elusive throughout as usual, but a habit of momentarily pausing at times to see if gaps were going to open up also hampered several promising opportunities.

After a ruck and then a drive to under the Blackwood post a penalty try was awarded to Monmouth and the now 17-0 lead seemed to spur some action with the visitors forcing their way into their opponent’s half for virtually the first time after a whole 24 minutes.

The home team however defended the attack well and by way of rejoinder saw second row Sam Harding over the line following a winning ruck and good support play with Tabb again converting.

White responded with one of his tricky runs and with his forwards dominant up front. In broken play, Hawkins was able to force his way over for Tabb to add the conversion again, with half-time approaching and with a bonus point already in the bag.

Given the wind and rain one might have expected Blackwood to come back with some sort of vengeance and they certainly tried hard but Monmouth’s dominant forwards were clearly not going to allow this.

The home team were still trying to play rugby but without the precision required in such troublesome conditions. White made an incisive break and handed on to centre Dafydd Hellard who charged on but trusted too much to his own power rather than passing to supporting players and the move fizzled out.

White and Emanuelli both nearly scored and prop Zen Szwagrzak showed good pace and positioning in a three quarter move only to knock on. Going into the final quarter, substitute flanker Rhys Davies emerged the try scorer from under a pile of bodies after a good drive took the pack over the line again. With the conversion by Emanuelli, Monmouth dug in to protect what was to be their winning score of 36-0, despite conceding two relatively silly yellow cards late on for matters of simple indiscipline.

Saturday brings another round in the National Bowl when Monmouth welcome Penybanc from West Wales. Kick off is at 2.30pm.

Photos courtesy of Gareth Roberts.