Fixture

Dowlais VS Monmouth 15/04/2023 Match Report

Score:

Dowlais: 26

Monmouth: 20

A nail-biting victory for Dowlais this week with a 26-20 win over in Monmouth.

Despite how closely contested the game would be in the end, Dowlais’ first bout at Monmouth in years didn’t get off to the best start. While the ball went back and forth between both sides over the course of the opening minutes, Monmouth quickly and suddenly struck through the Dowlais defence and past their try line, getting the first points on the board and what felt like quite an easy try.

With the following conversion giving the home side an early 7-0 lead, Dowlais had to get their heads in the game before the game fell out of their hands.

For the most part, they succeeded in that goal, denying Monmouth any more tries for the remainder of the first half and tightening up their defence overall. But while the defensive front saw an improvement over the course of the rest of the first quarter, the attacking front didn’t have as much luck.

For quite a while after Monmouth’s first try, Dowlais seemed tethered to their own half, constantly ending up back in there and under pressure no matter how many times they escaped, thanks to handling mistakes, turnovers in the rucks and more than a few penalties, with the latter eventually giving Monmouth three more points thanks to a penalty kick.

While Dowlais were managing to hold back the flood of their opponents attack, they weren’t getting any closer to closing the gap that had already formed, and if they wanted to have a chance at ever doing so, they needed to strike soon.

The boys certainly realised this, as Dowlais’ attacking front seemed to transform after Monmouth raised their lead to 10-0, with the visitors finally making some solid ground and having a good go at Monmouth’s try line.

But despite the renewed vigor in the attack, little came of the renewed assault for a while, with one effort in particular painfully getting held up and another being thwarted by an interception that almost gave another try to Monmouth.

But eventually, Dowlais’ efforts paid off and managed to break through the Monmouth defence, with a try touched down by Joel Braddock and converted by Connor Murphy bringing the score to a much more manageable 10-7.

Dowlais’ assault continued with the momentum of their first try at their backs, and apart from a few interruptions by Monmouth, would continue for the rest of the half, with the visitors keeping the home side under near constant pressure.

But unfortunately, despite having two solid, very close efforts, Dowlais were unable to secure any more points before the end of the first half, ending the first forty minutes still trailing behind at 10-7.

Despite their unsuccessful efforts at the end of the first half, Dowlais remained confident in their ability to finally take the lead as the second half began, and surely enough, they soon managed to do so. A slow push from the forwards took the ball behind the line for Dowlais’ second try of the game, once again touched down by Joel Braddock and converted by Connor Murphy.

With the score now sitting at 14-10 and with Dowlais having taken the lead, the tide had finally turned in the visitors’ favour. With their momentum still going strong, it seemed hopeful that Dowlais could keep up their assault and extend their lead enough to put the game to rest for good.

But unfortunately, things wouldn’t quite be that easy. For one reason or another, Dowlais’ lead would never extend past one try’s worth of points and the game would remain close for the rest of its duration.

The visitors’ modest four-point lead would be thourougly reduced not long after their second try thanks to another conceded penalty, putting the score to 14-13 and bringing Monmouth right back into the game.

While Dowlais would manage to score another (albeit unconverted) try in a very similar vein to their last one, down to being scored by Joel Braddock once again, extending their lead to 19-13, Monmouth would fire back almost right away with another try of their own.

An easy conversion put Dowlais agonisingly behind once again with a 20-19 lead to Monmouth. Dowlais were behind once again, and although the score gap was as thin as could be, time was running out, and in the conditions of the hot Spring afternoon, their momentum was starting to waver.

But a light of hope would come when Monmouth’s numbers were reduced to fourteen thanks to a yellow card. Resolved to strike while the iron was hot and reclaim their lead, Dowlais resumed their attacks once again. But thanks to the same factors as before, their efforts fell short, with the miniscule score gap continuing to taunt them as the remaining minutes winded down.

As the game neared its final ten minutes, it looked as though Monmouth’s yellow card would run out before Dowlais could get any points on the weakened side, but in another spot of luck, Monmouth would get hit with another yellow card just as their numbers were about to rise back up to fifteen.

Knowing that their opponents would be one down for almost the rest of the game, Dowlais gave one final push for the line, with this one finally breaking through. Dowlais’ fourth and final try of the game was touched down by Kyle Prosser and converted once again by Connor Murphy, bringing the score to its final count of 26-20.

Despite having successfully taken the lead again and having secured themselves a bonus point, there was still a few minutes left on the clock, and their lead was just small enough that Monmouth could take it away with a converted try, so for the final minutes, Dowlais had to keep their heads screwed on and defend to the very end.

Thankfully, there were no last minute heartbreaks or one-point, skin-of-their-teeth losses for Dowlais this week. They kept Monmouth at bay, and with one last short chip to touch, finished the game with a 26-20 bonus point victory.

Overall, Dowlais gave a great performance this week. While it was certainly frustrating that they were unable to extend their lead far ahead and constantly brought Monmouth back into the game with small mistakes, the whole side nonetheless put in an excellent effort on both the attacking and defensive fronts and showed a great deal of tenacity in being able to continuously fight back and take the lead, a performance that deservedly earned them a bonus point.

Let’s hope for a similar victory next week as Dowlais take on Brecon at home.