It was only the fifth round of Championship matches on Saturday, but Jersey’s squad are already stretched paper-thin in places and defeat at Billesley Common, against one of the sides tipped for relegation to National One, would have been a massive blow to this young squad’s confidence.
Instead, a controlled performance from this patched-up side, with several coming back early from their own injuries, produced 29 points, a barrel-load of penalties, huge territorial advantage, three sin-binnings for Moseley and domination of the scrum that warmed the heart of Jersey coaches Harvey Biljon and Steve Boden.
Yes, there were missed tackles that served up whole lot of problems in the first half, but by the end of the match it was Jersey, with their points in the bag, doggedly denying their hosts even a losing bonus.
The massive control that Jersey exerted over the match probably should have had them celebrating a far more comprehensive victory, but it will have been a happy group that departed the Midlands yesterday, with the bad memories of points that got away in Yorkshire and at home to Bristol eased considerably.
This was not rugby to set the pulse racing, it was rather pragmatic stuff in the main, with the set-piece solid and dominant, but it had its heroes in a satisfying team performance, nonetheless. Stealing tho)se particular headlines would be stand-in skipper Sam Lockwood in a superbly functioning front row; young stand-off Brendan Cope with an excellent performance reaping 19 vital kicked points; and a superb display of dogged endeavour from flanker Gary Graham, who topped it off with a spell in the second row at the end.
| P | W | D | L | BP | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yorkshire Carnegie | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 21 |
| Bristol | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 20 |
| London Scottish | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 18 |
| Doncaster | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 16 |
| London Welsh | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 15 |
| Bedford | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 15 |
| Rotherham | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 12 |
| Jersey | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 9 |
| Nottingham | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 9 |
| Ealing | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| Cornish Pirates | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| Moseley | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 6 |
Simply following the flow of match points would be misleading in the extreme; the lead changing six times in the first half suggests a game that ebbed and flowed . . . but it didn’t. Indeed, had it not been for Jersey’s only real black marks of the day, missed tackles that put them under huge pressure and which yielded two tries, this could have been embarrassingly one-sided for the hosts.
A lively start from the blue-shirted visitors, with quickly recycled ball, deservedly earned two early penalties from central positions that Cope gobbled up with ease. The 22-year-old South African went on to display growing maturity in his decision-making and metronomic accuracy with his boot, ending the day with a seven-from-seven record.
The good work was quickly undone with Drew Cheshire, a thorn in Jersey’s side last year, bursting through their line with unexpected ease and zooming in on the try line. A good covering tackle from Ross Adair stopped the immediate danger but stand-off Glyn Hughes’ tremendous lofted kick to the opposite corner found the unmarked Kyle Evans who sauntered over. Hughes, who also had a good day with the boot (only missing once) kicked Moseley into a 7-6 lead.
Stung, Jersey soon regained the lead through the pack, who went on to win five penalties from scrums, and the boot of Cope – only for a long-distance penalty from Hughes to snatch it back.
Pack pressure soon told near the Moseley line, with their lock-forward Greg Charlton sin-binned for stopping a maul, and then Jersey scoring, from another penalty line-out maul, shortly afterwards. Argentinian hooker Martin Garcia-Veiga was the man to drop on the ball for Jersey’s first try.
With a 16-10 lead and a man up, Jersey seemed certain to press on, but when former Reds’ prop Tom Fidler broke the line in his own half, he set in motion a move that yielded Moseley’s second try, with a huge pass from Hughes finding second-row Harry Casson, who dived over in the left-hand corner – though a TMO, if available, would surely have been called as a covering tackle from birthday boy Lewis Robling took Casson into the corner flag. A tight call, but with Hughes missing the conversion, Jersey still led 16-15.
Another Hughes penalty edged Moseley ahead, but Cope restored some semblance of reality to the scoreboard with a difficult penalty kick from the left-hand touchline.
At just 19-18 up, whatever was said in the away dressing room at the break certainly did the trick as far as conceding points was concerned as Moseley drew a rare second-half blank. That can be put down to some dogged defence but, in the main, through Jersey controlling where the game was played.
Cope added another three points before the game’s decisive moment just after the hour. Penalty line-out moves, with Markham leaping like a salmon, led to powerful mauls only stopped by yet another sin-binning offence, with lock Casson leaving his side a man short.
Jersey scored immediately from the repeated lineout, with Charlie Butterworth, putting in an excellent shift in place of captain Alex Rae at No 6, touching down for his first Championship try from a maul in the left-hand corner.
Now 29-18 up Jersey turned the screw even more at the line out and, with Haining taking the ball this time, Moseley were forced to stop the Jersey back in a manner that brought out referee Matt O’Grady’s yellow card again, this time for prop Craig Voisey.
Down to 13 for a while until Casson returned, Moseley showed great heart in trying to at least get within seven points of Jersey’s score in the closing minutes. But Jersey were in no mood to let their hard work be tarnished in the slightest and they held firm for what will be seen as a significant victory back at St Peter.
Sterner tests, however, are sure to come and the arrival of reinforcements, from the physio’s room and beyond, will doubtless be welcomed.
ENGLAND’s World Cup exit may have cast gloom over most of the country, but Jersey RFC’s squad were entitled to be a pretty happy bunch at Birmingham airport yesterday morning. Their first-ever victory at Moseley – and the manner of it – has given a huge shot in the arm to a Championship campaign that has been bedevilled with injuries.
Saturday’s 29-18 victory, sealed with a second-half show of control and huge commitment, earned wide praise for the young and inexperienced squad, who have had a rough time of it of late.
Said head coach Harvey Biljon: ‘I’m really proud of this group of players, you’ve got to take your hat off to them today. Everyone knows about our injuries and we haven’t been able to put in the normal preparation we’d have liked to regarding scrummaging, mauling and decision-making in the backs.
‘Apprehensive is probably not the right word, but players had to go out today and see out 80 minutes; trust the system, kick better and make their tackles. And they did that and ended up creating a bit of history.
‘I’ve really got to commend them; openside flanker Gary Graham filling in at lock after Pierce Phillips comes off; Tommy Spinks not due to come back for three weeks yet comes on to help…. the players really put their hands up today and said “I’ll go out there and do the best I can”.’
Forwards coach Steve Boden was also impressed: ‘I actually think the scoreline flatters Moseley a little bit. I think we could have got five points today – I think we left a bonus point on the field.
‘I thought Brendan Cope showed some great control today – he’s got a wise head on young shoulders – and the forwards were back to where they need to be, dominant throughout. This has come about through a lot of hard work and reacting to a lot of white noise and moaning from myself in training. But they were fantastic today.
‘We’re still thin in places, but we’ve got people like Gary Graham, who’ll put his head in places where others wouldn’t put their feet. His effort and physicality today was tremendous. But it’s hard to single out individuals, it was a real team effort.
‘We’ve come to a tough place and come away with four points, so we have to be happy with that. The boys had a lot of stick from people outside of the group and people inside of the group, but they’ve reacted in the right way.
‘But it doesn’t really mean a lot if we don’t back it up next week.’
Jersey flanker Gary Graham who finished up playing second row: ‘We made it hard for ourselves at times today, but we stuck with it and showed we can battle with the best of them.
‘I’ve played at second row a lot in amateur rugby so I know what I’m doing there; if they’ve got the confidence in me I’m only too happy to put a shift in.
‘I’m still finding my feet at this level and I know I’ve got things that need tidying up; but hopefully I’m going in the right direction.’
JRFC chairman Bill Dempsey: ‘This win will give us a bit of momentum. The boys were nervous before the game, so to get the win was a huge, huge thing. This is a tough, tough place – we’ve never won here before. I thought Gary Graham was outstanding today and the team really stepped it up in the second half.’
‘Really happy with the scrum and maul; we forced penalties and yellow cards – so pleased with the way it went.’
