Rugby reaction: Mixed reviews after final audition

  • Biljon pleased with result in final pre-season fixture, but outlined room for improvement.
  • Head coach says starting XV places still up for grabs ahead of Championship opener against Yorkshire Carnegie.

There’s certainly no denying Jersey RFC’s attacking potential ahead of their first Greene King IPA Championship game of the season following a six try to one defeat of Blackheath at St Peter on Saturday.

And with the Reds restricting their visitors to that one solitary score, in slippery conditions, there appears to be promise on the defensive front too.

Following their five-try haul a week earlier as they fell to visiting Welsh giants Scarlets, Jersey were again impressive from front to back.

Agreed, and with due respect given to the Londoners, National One outfit Blackheath – who now have JRFC Academy product Tom Ellis in their ranks – are a step behind the standard Harvey Biljon’s men are going to have to deal with this term, but worthwhile opposition they certainly were, and the fixture again gave the head coach reason to be happy.

Winger Tom Howe was among Jersey's top performers once again, both in attack and defence

The former Blackheath director of rugby did admit it didn’t all go to plan for the Islanders, though, which suggests he was hoping for six to become seven, eight or nine.

‘It was a great game for both teams and both can take a lot from it into the Championship and National One,’ said Biljon. ‘There were some fantastic moments, however I’ve got to say I’m still a little frustrated with the missed opportunities, and in games with fine margins we can’t afford to that.’

Samoan centre Tua Otto opened the scoring for the Reds with just four minutes played in the pre-season finale – latching on to a grubber kick forward from fullback Aaron Penberthy to touch down under the posts – but they were pegged back ten minutes later as Mike Mvelase laid claim to Blackheath’s only foray across the whitewash.

Order was restored soon after, though, with Wasps loanee Tom Howe playing Otto into space after swooping forward from right to left, and Penberthy made it three in the JRFC scoreboard corner having hunted down his own chip.

Aaron Penberthy chased down this chip forward to claim his first, and Jersey's third, try

Jersey’s tally received another notch on the hour-mark as scrum half Jack Moates steamed over, and Penberthy again attracted the applause as he made it 31-7 before flanker James Freeman repeated his Scarlets efforts off the back of a driving maul.

‘There are one or two players that have played themselves in and one or two that have played themselves out,’ Biljon added when asked how close he now is to deciding on his favoured starting XV.

‘We’ve got to find out where we are with the pack. They set a decent enough platform, but if we’re going to talk about consistency I’m not sure it was the same level of performance as the week before. And the backs have lots of work to do as there was times where they missed opportunities.’

Lock Nick Campbell takes on two Blackheath hopefuls

Nonetheless, when given three words to evaluate Jersey’s pre-season schedule, the South African responded positively.

‘We’ve learnt a lot in these past three weeks, our strength and conditioning has moved on and we’ve been able to get more scientific, and we’ve really stepped up our on-field discipline.

‘There will be some selection headaches now and some tough times for the boys in training – every session is going to count.’

Ellis, who appeared for Jersey Athletic just eight months ago, said of his ‘away-day’ experience: ‘We knew what to expect as they’re a full time side. They’re very well organised and physical, but we effectively gave them 21 points from poor kick chasing, so that’s out fault. ‘But it was really good fun, especially with a lot of my friends and family being here to watch.’

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