National League 3 East A - Monmouth 24 Newport HSOB 5

MONMOUTH RFC enjoyed a four-try victory over nearby rivals Newport High School Old Boys, climbing to seventh in the table after their fourth win of the season.

Newport set about their visit to the Sportsground with a purpose that saw them deep in the Monmouth half in the early stages, but eventually after a spell of resolute defence a long kick upfield to the right won Monmouth a missed opportunity for three points after an offside.

The visitors attacked again with a deep kick of their own behind the defence, only to find scrum half Dan White who ran the ball back some 30 metres beating five tacklers in the process. Monmouth won a penalty on halfway and from the subsequent touch, won a scrum for a knock on by a desperate defender which they drove almost to the line and then spread the ball across the field to the right corner where White popped up again to score the first try of the match on the quarter hour.

The game was in early days maybe, but already the referee was beginning to frustrate both sets of spectators, with the award of six yellow cards shared equally throughout the game.

Monmouth had Newport on the back foot now with good pressure being exerted, forward carries with good offloads and some astute kicks to the corner by fly half Paul Emanuelli, followed up well by the wingers. Such pressure was aided by rather poor defensive kicks by the opposition.

Second row Pete Seran made ground and his pass out of the tackle led to a bout of inter-passing taken on by centre Amosa Nove whose sinewy run put wing James Smith in at the corner with half-time beckoning.

Newport were not outdone though and with Monmouth a man down to a yellow card, they made ground deep into the left corner with a long bouncing kick. They in turn lost a player and when play moved upfield White was again on hand to pick up an interception to put the supporting Emanuelli over in the corner. The kick was far out but the try-scorer was almost on the mark with the difficult conversion to leave the score 17-0 at half time.

Newport were a better side than this but the Monmouth back row had got amongst them to frustrate their plans, so a change of emphasis was required. Perhaps it was a touch of complacency with a comfortable cushion of 17 points or just that the visitors, as in the first half, set off from the whistle with greater purpose.

Certainly their numbers 7 and 8 became very noticeable from the inroads they made and after an exchange of penalties for infringements in the tackle area, the Old Boys put a move together that brought with it a four on two overlap to gain a deserved try but which they failed badly to convert.

It was now Monmouth’s turn to defend but with some sound tackling, with the two wing forwards to the fore, their goal-line remained intact but not without a scare, or several.

The home fly-half’s kicking out of defence was powerful, too, and with further punctuation from penalties and more yellow cards as the referee continued to excite the crowd with some seemingly harsh decisions the game remained nothing if not eventful.

With the sky darkening, centre Nove again showed his beguiling running taking play almost to the line on the right. Successive attempts to drive over having failed, a mis-kicked cross-kick gave the ball away to a defender but Monmouth achieved a turn over from a ruck, spun the ball left for a bonus point winning try in the corner.

The difficult conversion was slotted by Emanuelli to seal a personally good game and the well-earned 24-5 win, hopefully the boost they needed in time for their home Swalec Bowl game this Saturday (10th December) against Llantwit Major. Photos by Gareth Roberts.