THERE was a steely determination behind the eyes of those in Jersey red on Saturday, as the Islanders put their previous home loss against London Welsh firmly in the rear view to dispatch Maidenhead 40-7.
After a slow start cost them the last time out at CoinShares Park, head coach Myles Landick stressed of the importance that his men begin on the front foot, and the impressive Mark Boarer duly obliged. The full-back scored three unanswered tries in the opening 30 minutes, before Tom Tilstone added one of his own in a dominant first-half display from the hosts.
“I’m having a lot of fun out there,” said a smiling Boarer. “Being out of the fold for a few years and then coming back, there is probably a bigger sense of appreciation for the game.
“They are all a great bunch of lads to be around and if we can play some decent rugby here and there, that’s brilliant.
“I was just fortunate enough to benefit from some great build-up play from the boys in the opening stages of the game to have three walk-in tries.”
With a commanding 26-0 lead at the break, there was every expectation that the hosts would kick on and bury Maidenhead coming out for the second-half.
But that was not the case, as the visitors frustrated Jersey.
Try-scorer Tilstone was yellow carded for a high tackle and the men in purple and navy made it count to get on the board.
The Caesareans would add two more converted tries of their own to breeze to a comfortable victory, but there was sense of disappointment around the camp as to the nature of the second-half.
“First and foremost, the result is really pleasing,” said head coach Landick.
“We’ve spoken about the importance of starting well and we did last game out against Cambridge and we did again today.
“I think looking back, we will be a little disappointed that we didn’t kick on as well as we’d have liked.
“We spoke in the dressing room about areas we wanted to sort out and perhaps in the second-half, we went off script at times.
“There was still some really flowing rugby in there, but maybe at times, we were trying to force an extra pass that wasn’t there and made a couple poor decisions inside their 22.
“But ultimately, I’m really chuffed. It’s 40 points at home, with only seven conceded, and even that was a bit of a freak try.
“Young Callum Cuthbert was great when he came on a scrum-half and Jake Bates coming on in the forwards and grabbing a try.
“Both needed the game time and they did well.
“Overall, I’m really happy with the boys. Coming back after a week off isn’t always easy and I thought they came out really sharp and fresh, which was brilliant to see.
“There will always be areas to work on, as we set really high standards for ourselves.
“But we looked comfortable. It was a convincing five points at home.”
With the weather set fair, there was an expectation that the attack would show some more balance between the forwards and the backs.
That is exactly what we saw, and when it’s dry “there’s no excuses” for the backs to put on a few themselves according to player of the match Boarer.
“We have been so good up front this year. The boys are stacked in the forwards,” he said.
“Diesel [Jack Macfarlane] is way ahead in the try-scoring charts and that’s a product of how good the unit is performing.
“But when it’s dry, there’s no excuses for us backs to put on a few ourselves, which we did today.
“I still think we left a few out there. When the footage comes through and we will review it, we’ll be a bit disappointed that we didn’t finish maybe four or five.
“It’s so close between us and [London] Welsh and there’s every chance it will come down to points.
“It’s important we keep it up and we didn’t really do that in the second-half.
“At times we pushed for that final pass and it was slightly clunky, but to still score 40 and only concede one try, overall we have to be happy with the effort.”
