The crucial moment in this game came at a scrum on the home line with the last play of the first half. Having fallen behind to a very early Andrew Mason try, Monmouth responded through their jumbo pack, which battered the home eight in the scrum for the remainder of the half. Leading 13-10 in the opening period's injury time, they won a penalty at a scrum 5 metres out and elected to reset seemingly confident of a pushover or penalty try. But just at the feed, Tillery managed to get a very brief snap shove on and the ball shot past the Monmouth No. 8 allowing the Green & Whites blind-side defenders to wrestle the attackers into touch.

Had the visitors scored then to double their lead, the fate of the game might very well have been different. As it was Tillery went in trailing by just three points and after the interval, the home side totally dominated proceedings as Monmouth ran out of steam and the Green & Whites upped the tempo, and Kevin Day, playing out of position on the wing, snapped up a Gareth Edwards cross kick for a bonus point try.

Tillery got off to a flying start in the opening two minutes with Andrew Mason finishing off some great approach work by Darren Miles and Craig Meredith for a try converted by Luke Pegler in the absence of the tonsillitis-victim, Chris Stevens.

Monmouth's pack proved a handful in the game between the sides earlier in the season and in the scrum in particular they proved it again with the home eight pressurised relentlessly at that phase.

On fifteen minutes they drew level with a well worked try on the blindside following a sniping run by their scrum half and then two Baker penalties edged them deservedly 13-7 in front.

The game was sporadic in nature at this stage with forwards from Monmouth, despite their scrum dominance, going down with injuries, giving an indication perhaps that they might not maintain their upper-hand. The last scrum before the interval was crucial and as Tillery escaped a tricky situation, one sensed a turning point.