National League 3 East A - Newport HSOB 33 Monmouth RFC 15

ON a sunny afternoon, Monmouth faced a tough Newport High School Old Boys side and came away tasting defeat after an evenly fought and exciting game of rugby. 

The game started off with a series of scrums, with Monmouth putting pressure on Newport. Zen Szwagrzak proved dominant in the scrums, which was to be the case throughout the afternoon. After much to-ing and fro-ing and a series of high tackles from Newport, Monmouth put together a series of searing runs through outstanding centre Amosa Nove. 

A line out steal from Zac Williams saw Nove gliding through the centres to release left wing Dave Fennell only for the move to fizzle out following a knock on five metres from the line.

A penalty for offside at a ruck gave Newport three points from 35 metres out with their outside half converting.

A further infringement for offside led to an easy conversion for the Newport fly half who took the scores to 6-0.

Some poor passing from behind the scrum led to a dropped pass from the Monmouth 22. From the resulting scrum the Newport scrum half, who was a livewire all afternoon, set the Newport number 11 free. The under 18-capped winger proved to be the difference between the two sides and left the two Monmouth defenders for dead to score under the posts, with a conversion making the score 13-0.

A turnover after the re-start and some lovely passing through the backs once again saw Nove gliding through the defence only for the last pass to Dan White to go forward preventing what looked like a certain try.

A scrum 30 metres out in the Newport half led to a knock on from the Newport number nine, with captain Sam Parsons kicking the penalty to bring the scores to 13-3 at half time.

Another scrum immediately following kick off led to a penalty once again from a dominant Monmouth scrum, with all eight forwards determined to take advantage of their scrum superiority. A penalty was added by the referee for dissent from the Newport forwards, but the resulting penalty from 40 metres was missed by Parsons.

With the Monmouth scrummage rampant, the visitors battled hard. An excellent line of running from centre James Smith saw him flying into the Newport half seemingly unopposed, only to be thwarted by an ankle tap. A penalty for not releasing led to a quick cross-field kick from the Newport scrum half which was collected by the Newport 11 to bring the scores to 18-3. 

From the resulting kick off, fullback Dan White won the ball to take play deep into the Newport 22. An offside from the Newport nine led to a quick tap penalty for Monmouth only for them to be penalised five metres short of the line for holding on. The Newport left wing was on fire chasing his own kick and Monmouth counterattacked through substitute player/coach Paul Emanuelli at 10. A cross-field kick led to a score from the substitute Monmouth centre to bring the scores to 18-10.

From the resulting kickoff Monmouth were offside which the Newport 10 converted to bring the scores to 21-10.

A further catch from Dan White from the kick off led to an excellent running move through the Monmouth centres. A series of high tackles and infringements in the Newport 22 led to the sin binning of the Newport number eight.

The Newport pack were now even more under the cosh and following a series of dominant Monmouth scrums the ball was passed from Monmouth number eight Hawkins to Monmouth scrum half Davies with Dan White scoring in the corner to bring the scores to 21-15 with the conversion missed.

Newport came back with a vengeance and earned a penalty for not rolling away which they kicked to touch. A series of moves from the Newport backs and exerted pressure from their forwards led to Ed White being penalised and yellow carded for a misdemeanour close to the line.

It was Monmouth’s turn to feel the pressure now, but with the referee adjudicating foul play from the resulting lineout Emanuelli cleared their lines with a fantastic kick to the halfway line.

With Emanuelli now dictating play he put in a searing kick, only for the Newport left wing to run nearly the full length of the pitch, before linking up with his forwards in the Monmouth 22 for the number eight to score in the corner. An excellent conversion from the Newport 10 brought the scores to 28-15.

The game was breaking up as Monmouth looked to find their way back into the match and Newport looked for a bonus point. Fantastic defence from number eight Hawkins and fullback Dan White led to the ball moving wide down the right hand touchline. This time it was a searing run from the Monmouth number 11, but an almost certain try was denied when the ball went forward in the tackle.

The match ended with Monmouth once again under pressure from Newport on their own line.  A further penalty for an infringement took Newport into the Monmouth 22 where, following a series of excellent phases, the Newport tighthead prop went over to score under the posts.

Monmouth were forced to play the last 10 minutes of the game with only 13 men due to Ed White’s sin bin and Zen Swargrzac retired with injury. The referee incorrectly would not allow a replacement for Zen, which he later acknowledged to have been a mistake on his part.

Monmouth are next in action away at Oakdale on 8th April.