BALA 9
MONMOUTH 13
A SPIRITED second-half fightback came up short as Bala’s SWALEC Bowl adventure ended at home to Monmouth.
A poor start eventually did for Bala, who were always playing catch-up, but on a different day they may have made it through to the fifth round as Monmouth were left desperately clinging to a slender four-point advantage at the end.
Bala chairman Tony Parry said: “It was a bit close, but we lost it in the first half.”
Boasting a big pack of forwards, Monmouth made the better start and they took the lead with a try within four minutes.
The Division Four (East) visitors continued to boss the opening 40 minutes and Bala paid the penalty for kicking away too much of their possession as Monmouth built up a 10-0 cushion.
There was to be some first-half joy for the home side, though, as Gareth Owen’s successful penalty cut the deficit to just seven points at the interval.
While Monmouth opened the second half scoring with a penalty, the rest of the half belonged to Bala.
“We competed well in the second half after a few words at half-time,” added Parry.
“We started running the ball a bit more.”
Reward came for the home side in the shape of a brace of second-half penalties from Gareth Owen and late in proceedings, Bala trailed 13-9.
And Bala had a great opportunity to win the tie, only to be penalised at the worst possible moment.
The Bala chairman said: “They dropped a maul right on their try-line but we got penalised for handling the ball on the floor.
“If we had gone over, they wouldn’t have come back after that.”
Parry added: “It’s disappointing we lost and maybe we didn’t deserve to win ... but in the second half we picked the game up a bit.”
On a positive note, flanker Ifan Hughes returned to first team action after a spell out through injury.