CHEPSTOW produced some of their best rugby of the season to dump local rivals Monmouth out of the SWALEC Bowl with a comprehensive 35-23 win at the Upton Memorial Ground.

Tries from Jonathan Thomas, Ian Griffiths, Shane Reece and Ashley Mustoe along with 15 points from the boot of Nick Williams, led the home side to their seventh straight victory in all competitions.

Their good run had looked set to continue right from the opening minutes as skipper Alan Franklin collected the ball from the kick-off and sparked Chepstow into attack.

Dan Chui, playing at number eight in his first game since re-signing from Lydney, led the charge with some powerful running before the ball made its way through the backs to Thomas who crossed over in the corner with less than five minutes on the clock.

Williams converted and slotted over a penalty five minutes later as the home side stormed into a 10-0 lead.

Monmouth pulled a penalty back but they were unable to stop the Chepstow juggernaut as a converted Ian Griffiths try and another penalty from Williams gave them a seemingly unassailable 20-3 lead with less than a quarter of the game gone.

But 10 minutes before half-time the visitors finally managed to grab a foothold in the game as centre Andrew Davies charged down an attempted clearance to score in the corner.

A conversion from Ricketts and a penalty from each side saw Monmouth back to within 10 points at the break with the score at 23-13.

But any hopes the visitors had of a comeback were all but ended five minutes after the re-start when Chepstow again, claiming the ball from the kick off moved through several phases before centre Shane Reece finished it off with a well-taken try.

With the score going unconverted the game ebbed and flowed at 28-13 before some superb scrummaging finally bore fruit for Monmouth with a try from close-range that was converted.

And although they scored another penalty and kept competing to the end, the visitors hopes were finally extinguished by an Ashley Mustoe try with around 10 minutes to go.

The win continues Chepstow's excellent form and puts them four games from a match on the hallowed turf of the Millenium Stadium.

Chepstow centre and try-scorer Shane Reece said: "We were absolutely chuffed with the performance. For the first 15minutes we played some of the best rugby we have played all season, we were devastating.

"Monmouth are top of their division and probably though they were favourites but they came up short."

And Shane said the club has been buoyed by the return this week of their former player Dan Chui from Lydney who can play centre or back row.

Shane said: "He has given us a massive boost. He had a great match but also just watching him in training you can see he makes other players up their game.

"To have him coming back in after six straight wins gave us an extra bit of confidence and hopefully we can keep that run going."

Chepstow's next chance to do that will be at home to New Tredegar in the league on Saturday. Kick-off is at 2.30pm.