WRU East One

Abergavenny RFC 5 Monmouth RFC 5

THE final league fixture of 2024 provided a mouth-watering encounter between local rivals Abergavenny and Monmouth at Bailey Park on Saturday, reports COLIN EVANS.

Monmouth, who have had some notable victories in recent weeks, were keen to revenge the defeat to their hosts in the opening fixture of the season.

Abergavenny selected Liam Williams, Robbie Lewis, Matt Charles, Will Evans, Dan Beavan, Harry Judd, Luke Evans, Rob Dudley-Jones in the forwards.

And Rhys Ferguson Dayle Price, Will Dudman, Harvey Barrier, Tom Foley, Anthony Squire and Ben Evans made up the starting backs.

In the early exchanges, both sides showed a willingness to spread the ball wide and test the opposition defence, but both stood firm resulting in very few scoring opportunities in the first quarter.

Williams, Lewis and Charles gave the home side an advantage at scrum time which put Monmouth’s attacking threat on the back foot for much of the first half.

And Dudley-Jones and replacement Max Gregory carried well to keep Abergavenny moving up field while Luke Evans was strong over the ball.

But despite much display of vigour by both teams it was not to be for either of them in the first period, with possession being kicked away by both sides and the fairly equal and determined defence of both leaving it scoreless at the break.

The deadlock was finally broken shortly after the restart when after a concerted period of pressure in which Tom Foley made a clean break in midfield, Dudley-Jones forced his way over for the opening try, which was unconverted, giving Abergavenny a 5-0 lead.

Having given away several soft penalties though, Abergavenny then found themselves defending their own line.

And after several attacking phases Kester Mobbs-Morgan found space out wide to score Monmouth’s try which also went unconverted, levelling the scores at 5-5 going into half-time.

Eoin Shackleton and Kiatisak Tinanop were introduced at the start of the second half, and with the scores level the pressure was building with both the players and spectators.

Kicks at goal were drifting wide of the mark for both sides, and every attacking move was breaking down with an error or determined tackling.

The vocal decibels of the crowd were rising and so the stage was set for someone to win the game for either side.

The pendulum of territory and possession swung from side to side, kickable opportunities came and went and half chances spurned.

But as darkness approached and the clock ran down the referee finally brought to an end an enjoyable game of rugby, with a draw probably a fair result from this full-blooded local derby.

The Quins played Monmouth's Druids on the bottom pitch in a Dragons Athletic League fixture.

In the first half Monmouth were in the ascendancy scoring four tries with one for Abergavenny for Morgan West-Jones.

Abergavenny Quins came back into the game in the second half with tries for Aaron Mills and Rob Lothian, but Monmouth ran out winners 29-17.

Over the Blorenge, Blaenavon missed out 34-31 at home to Skewen in a WRU One cup epic that went to extra-time.

The hosts actually led 17-0 at one point, but the Swansea outfit fought back to 24-all at full-time.

Both sides then scored tries for 31-all before a penalty by Anthony Busselli put the visitors in front.

And despite throwing the proverbial kitchen sink at it, dogged defence in the dying minutes kept Blaenavon out.

Elsewhere, Brynmawr lost 13-6 in a tight Championship East affair at Ynysddu, leaving them in the bottom two by a point.