During the first half it was a reasonably even affair where we did have more territorial advantage but only manages one try from second row Chris Zudniac who scored off a great break by Kevin Kustelski. Bayonne converted a penalty. The half ended with Monmouth having one man in the bin for an accidental dump tackle and the score 5-3.Second half opened with an exchange of scores. Monmouth’s fly half Evan Fitzgerald scored a try converted by Joe Lucarelli and then Monmouth were intercepted on the 22 while trying to attack from deep with an overlap. The Bayonne try was also converted and the score was 12-10. Shortly after this Monmouth lost two men to the bin for handling the ball on the ground within 3 minutes of each other. The remaining players dug deep and defended a series of defensive lineouts, forcing several handling errors and then clearing the lines from the subsequent scrums. Once the players returned from the bin the Monmouth pack realized the strength of the scrum, started taking ball against the head and eventually forced an attacking 5 meter scrum from which the referee awarded a penalty try as the Bayonne scrum split in two attempting to prevent the pushover.Bayonne then had few attempts to come back at Monmouth but eventually the pack turned over another ball at the scrum that lead to a good support try through the middle for Joe Lucarelli following a good break by Evan Fitzgerald and sharp thinking by Kyle Matthews.Monmouth’s Coach Pat Moroney “I was pleased with the performance but not the discipline. Our forwards dominated the scrum and the pushover/penalty try caped the day for them. The backs showed some good heads up decision making and were ruthless when they saw some space to attack. Man of the match went to the six Monmouth front rows that played in the game.”[slideshow id=1]
Menu