Posted online: Nov 20th, 2008

Monkstown……33

Newbridge……..5

Leinster League Division 1

Halfway through the league campaign and Newbridge have just a solitary bonus point to show for their efforts.

The bad news continued at Monkstown where Newbridge failed to be clinical in a match affected by the official’s interpretation of the new ELVs in the ruck and maul.

Even though both teams tried to play the game at speed, the referee still found time for five yellow cards, the first two of which reduced Newbridge to 13 as they began to get to grips with the game.

However, it was the Monkstown’s back-three domination of their hapless counterparts that did the real damage.

The early indication looked good with a strong Newbridge scrum and Liam Heavey effective in the lineout.

But then a series of loose kicks from both sides saw Monkstown get the better field position and Newbridge fluffed their own lineout for the home team to score off the second phase.

Early in the second quarter Newbridge were 13-0 down as the Monkstown kicker found his range with two superb penalties.

With half-backs Dave Hogan and Ben Swindlehurst playing well, the Newbridge three-quarters got plenty of ball but too often attacks broke down through errors and penalties.

A third penalty and then a long speculative kick was badly handled, Monkstown added a second try on the stroke of half time for 21-0 lead.

The restart saw both sides making plenty of errors but Newbridge began to find a rhythm until Gareth O’Reilly and then Stephen Melville were binned.

Down to 13 men the Newbridge pack began to get on top and as the line was threatened Monkstown’s winger intercepted a wayward pass to run the length of the pitch to make it 26-0.

Monkstown’s bonus point try came from a perfectly weighted cross-kick straight into the arms of the winger to touch down with 15 minutes left on the clock.

In the final quarter both teams began to get frustrated at the way the rucks were policed but this time it was Monkstown who saw two players binned.

Newbridge worked hard for a consolation score and it came from Heavey who muscled over from the second phase after a five-metre scrum.

The cards still had another outing with substitute Colin O’Brien sent back to the line after just two minutes on the pitch.

The action reverts to the Hosie Cup next week, but Newbridge can’t expect much relief from an Athy team flying high in Division Three and playing with confidence.

Match report from www.newbridgerugby.com

Newbridge: John McNamara, Frank Lyons, Thibault Flegon, Dave Brannigan, Nicky Hannigan, Ben Swidlehurst, Dave Hogan, Rory McCann (c), Mark Doyle, Stpehen Melville, Morgan Foley, Liam Heavey, Cillian Whelan, Gareth O’Reilly, Eddie Southern.