Rhymney 22 Monmouth 64

MONMOUTH put Rhymney on the wrong end of a ten tries to three hiding when Monmouth when they visited them last Saturday, but the opening stages were all the host team's as they attacked again and again with vigour on a good surface in the fine sunny playing conditions.

An early penalty against for offside stirred Monmouth and they responded with one of their own courtesy of the boot of fly-half Rhys Ricketts as the local defence proved equally over keen, writes Pete Walters.

Made to scrum back for an over-long kick ahead, scrum-half Dan White stole the ball at the back of the opposition scrum and ran untouched for the first try of the game and a 3-10 lead in less than ten minutes of play.

The pressure on Monmouth was eased by Rhymney's poor drop-outs much to the annoyance of the local supporters but they redeemed themselves with some strong forward surges which forced Monmouth to carry over. From the resultant scrum they won a penalty for the back row not binding and quickly taken, they levelled the scores at 10-10.

With things steadying down Monmouth sneaked ahead with another penalty and although Rhymney responded by badly missing one of their own, a strong run resulted in them taking the lead and the tackler over the line.

The lack of strength in depth now began to show as scrums became passive due to a home team injury, but it was Monmouth who benefitted from another White 'scorch and burn' try when he outflanked five defenders and made the conversion easier.

With half-time fast approaching, Ricketts was the next to shine as he ran left around a defender moving the ball to the supporting full back Matt King who outpaced the defence over 55m to score followed almost immediately by an excellent step by Ricketts to wrong-foot the hosts and set White away again for another try and a 15-30 lead at the interval.

Playing now into the strengthening breeze and sun had raised the Rhymney crowd's hopes but Monmouth coped well with their attacks, dominating territory well and opening the second half scoring after 14 minutes when flanker Mike Griffiths made a determined charge to move the score on to 15-37.

Things were working well now for Monmouth and following a good line-out and a succession of winning rucks, the ball was spun left along the line with veteran centre Andrew Davies using his guile to cut out defenders with a long lofted pass to left wing Matt Tabb who scored a neatly taken try to stretch things to 15-42.

On the attack again Monmouth produced some slick passing but surprisingly, despite using all his weight, this time Davies was held back on the line in the act of scoring.

Rhymney were still giving of their best attempting all sorts of ways to stem the visiting barrage but as legs were tiring and passive scrums were resumed, the loss of a player reducing the home team to 14 men opened up the game for the Monmouth backs who this time with Kyle Price at the base of the scrum found the supporting Jake Meredith on the right.

But Monmouth were brought back to their senses as their concentration lapsed and Rhymney showed they still had something to offer narrowing the gap with a seven-pointer to 22-47.

Roused and not to be outdone, left wing Tabb made space with a jinking run and passed on to King for a move straight off the training field and his second try of the match.

With the final whistle beckoning, Davies again made ground with flanker Callum Gleed swerving in and out before the ball went through a succession of hands before White popped up yet again for his fourth try of the day as a precursor to another he was to make for King again soon after. The conversion hit the post and although this ended the scoring, the final act came from captain Nick Phillips charging upfield and although he found the ever present White in support the pass was adjudged forward and everyone had to settle for a 22-64 result.

Stimulating and entertaining it may have been but Rhymney would hope to strengthen their ranks as they regain some players tempted away by other clubs. Next Saturday will be a move back to the past when RTB Ebbw Vale are the visitors at the Sports Ground in another SWALEC League 3A game. Here's hoping this excellent result will have persuaded the Monmouth boys they can and will be able to play with such abandon on future occasions.