- Jersey RFC exact revenge on Cornish Pirates in Biljon’s first home game against his old employers.
- Late Buckle try moves the Islanders to within three points of the top six with two games to play.
- Seventh victory of the season comes with the news that three Reds are on the move for next term – two to London-based Championship rivals.
ANOTHER last-gasp home victory sealed with the boot of full-back Aaron Penberthy, this was a special result for him and the other four former Pirates involved with Jersey on Saturday afternoon.
It proved anything but a dead Championship rubber between two mid-table teams, with an often techy-affair boiling over on several occasions, particularly in the first half when Jersey came off by far the worst in the discipline stakes, losing a string of penalty decisions and both locks, Pierce Phillips and Nick Campbell, to yellow cards.
| P | W | D | L | BP | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bristol | 20 | 19 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 94 |
| Worcester | 20 | 18 | 0 | 2 | 19 | 91 |
| London Scottish | 20 | 12 | 2 | 6 | 12 | 64 |
| Rotherham | 20 | 10 | 1 | 8 | 7 | 53 |
| Nottingham | 20 | 11 | 0 | 9 | 8 | 52 |
| Cornish Pirates | 20 | 9 | 0 | 11 | 9 | 45 |
| Yorkshire Carnegie | 20 | 8 | 1 | 11 | 11 | 45 |
| Jersey | 20 | 7 | 2 | 11 | 10 | 42 |
| Bedford | 20 | 7 | 0 | 12 | 9 | 37 |
| Doncaster | 20 | 6 | 1 | 13 | 9 | 35 |
| Moseley | 20 | 4 | 1 | 15 | 9 | 27 |
| Plymouth Albion | 20 | 3 | 2 | 15 | 4 | 20 |
Although it was a performance that fell well short of the sensational victory over Worcester Warriors last time out at St Peter, it nonetheless provided a similar blood-pumping finale, with Jersey turning a losing position into victory in the closing seconds.
Having missed a conversion and then a fairly straightforward penalty that would have put Jersey 14 points clear earlier on in the second-half, Penberthy was given a far more difficult touchline conversion to clinch victory, after a catch and drive move was joyfully touched down in the Bowl corner by another former Pirate, Joe Buckle.
Hooker Buckle, back in the No 7 shirt due to a back-row injury crisis, tied the scores at 26-26-all, thus setting the scene for stand-in full-back Penberthy – in sublime form with the boot at the moment – to keep any nerves well at bay and guide over a tremendous kick in difficult windy conditions.
Jersey, though far from their best, had at one point in the second half looked to be heading for a fairly comfortable victory at 21-12, but two rare missed kicks from Penberthy gave Pirates hope of victory, which they looked set to achieve with two converted tries.
Three first-half pens from Penberthy – including two wind-assisted efforts from inside his own half – put Jersey 9-5 up at half-time and although the visitors briefly took the lead a strong and more disciplined response from Jersey, including a pushover try from Martin Garcia-Veiga, put them in the driving seat.
‘I asked the players, “please put a bit extra in” – and they did,’ said head coach Harvey Biljon. ‘Selfishly, it was probably for me to get once over the Pirates. But our main focus was for the players to achieve the goals they have set themselves by the end of the season – that’s far more important than any individual battles
‘I don’t feel that we got the reward we deserved at set piece in the second half – there was a big turn around in our set-piece performance and I feel quite strongly that we should have come away with a bit more in those areas.
Jersey forwards coach Steve Boden was a little harder on his charges: ‘I thought we were poor today. One thing I’ve said to the boys from day one is that it’s not just winning and losing, it’s how you win and how you lose; sometimes you can lose and perform well, today I thought we performed poorly and won.
‘I think we got caught up in trying to play too much running rugby in the conditions. You get told it when your nine years old . . . you have to earn the right to go wide and for the first 50-55 minutes we never earned that right, we just tried to throw it wide in the hope something would happen. When we started to become more direct, more physical, then the rewards came.
‘Fair play, the boys turned it around, they adjusted. Our discipline in the first half was poor, but they put that right in the second half.
‘You could say we got a “get out of jail card” there, but let’s be clear, we did concede some soft points today.
‘I’m happy with the win, not the performance – there’s a lot to work on.’
Jersey will now face one of their toughest tests of the season away to league leaders Bristol on Friday evening before ending the Championship campaign at home to Moseley the following weekend.
It’s certainly a far less stressful finish to a Championship campaign, with genuine relegation fears banished some time ago, but there’s certainly much still to play for in terms of markers being put down for next season.
Once again there is expected to be a major change in the squad make-up, although the first-choice playing core seems to have been retained, with the notable exceptions of Drew Locke (London Scottish), Ryan Hodson (London Welsh) and Harry Williams (Exeter). Though the club, as is their policy, have not confirmed any of those moves.
