Portsmouth 21
Jersey RFC 57
HEAD coach Myles Landick was pleased to see his side being kept on their toes by Portsmouth – although there was little concern regarding their latest result.
Jersey RFC claimed a third comprehensive on-field victory of the season to underline their status as promotion contenders, swatting aside their Counties 1 Hampshire rivals after they had threatened to make life uncomfortable.
Nathan Rogers (three), Charlie Hubert (two), Dom Mayo, Andrew Pitcher, Euan Spencer and captain Tim Corson all touched down for the Islanders, who only held a 12-point lead early in the second half.
The victory adds to a walkover triumph handed to them seven days earlier by Petersfield, and leaves them four adrift of leaders Eastleigh, with a game in hand.
‘The set-piece functioned well, the maul and the lineout worked very well and we didn’t give too many penalties away,’ said Landick. ‘But on reflection, there were three or four try-scoring opportunities missed and there was a stage early in the second half where Portsmouth thought there was hope. Score those and it becomes a lot more comfortable for us earlier on.
‘We don’t want to win every game by 70, 80 points and to be fair to Portsmouth they kept trying. We scored 33 points in the first half but they still made a good game of it and we got something out of it.’
Jersey travel to Winchester this coming weekend, for what Landick believes will be the team’s first major test.
‘This is probably the biggest week we’ll have for a while – certainly until December, when we play Havant,’ he said. ‘Winchester are gunning for promotion themselves and we’ve got to go there and get a win.’
