SELDOM does a side beat a promotion rival by 22 points and leave the field of battle with an air of disappointment.
But such has become the expectation of Jersey RFC.
Now nine wins from as many games, Myles Landick’s men secured yet another bonus-point victory with a 47-25 home win over Winchester.
The Islanders now sit atop the Regional 2 South Central tree 11 points clear of Tottonians, but their head coach trudged onto the pitch at full-time, saying the contest “felt a bit like a loss”.
A destructive opening half saw the Caesareans pile 33 points onto the scoreboard and when the hour mark came around, the score was 47-3 in favour of the hosts.
However, an inspired Winchester fought back to score four unanswered tries to conclude the game, taking a valuable losing bonus point home to Hampshire.
“To concede four tries in the second half is disappointing from our point of view,” said Landick.
“But, as I said to the boys, the positive is that we have five points in the bag against a third-placed side.
“The important lesson is that we need to kick on from those sort of positions.
“The saving grace is that we did so much of the heavy lifting prior to their tries, that we were out of sight. There were tons of positives also. The way we played at times during the game was brilliant and flowing.
“But ultimately, we want to be ruthless and finish teams off and we didn’t achieve that this game.
Landick’s high standards are shared as a collective by the group, who have their sights firmly set on heights far beyond the level they are currently playing at.
He continued: “You could see the group at the end, they were pretty dejected knowing they let an opponent leave here with a bonus point.
“So there is an element of frustration, but on the flip-side there was a lot to smile about too.
“There was some lovely skill on display for our tries and for the first hour, we hardly put a foot wrong.
“The main goal was to finish the day with maximum points and we did that.
“The other elements we were not so happy about can be sorted out.
“They are not huge issues in the grand scheme of things, but we will address them ahead of our next game.”
One forward who was happy to be back amongst the tries was Jack Macfarlane.
The experienced hooker has recently been sidelined through injury, but was back in front of the St Peter faithful to add two of Jersey’s scores en route to victory.
He said: “It’s been brilliant to be back out there personally.
“I’m still a little bit rusty. The calf isn’t quite right yet, so I’m sort of running round on one leg at the moment.
“I’m not the most athletic of guys to start with anyway, so that’s quite tough. When you look at our group, we have some really great players in there.
“Lots of younger guys with high ambitions and standards.
“When you have a squad like that, you want to go out there every game and play brilliant rugby for 80 minutes.
“Maybe that isn’t feasible all the time. There will be momentum shifts and tougher times.
“But, we put 47 points on a great side in an hour or so of rugby.
“We can carry that forward and ensure that in the games ahead, we are a little more ruthless from start to finish.”
