Rugby union: Jersey earn their victory

Rugby union: Jersey earn their victory

Until then, Guernsey had more than held their own in the scrum and had deservedly gone into the lead when winger Darren Holden scored an opportunist try, ghosting over when the ball was played to him virtually from the kick-off.Stand-off Chris Eyton-Jones converted and, for the next 35 minutes Guernsey looked the better team.

They had Jersey in all sorts of trouble at both the line-out and in the scrum, and had by far the best of possession, although to their credit, Jersey’s defence wouldn’t allow them space enough to turn possession into points.And it was against the run of play when Richard Finch, on the wing, scored a try, converted by Darren Toudic, to make it 7-7.Toudic then eased Jersey into a 10-7 lead with a penalty before Eyton-Jones brought the score to 10-10 following a Guernsey penalty, during which time the visitors’ pack were clearly in the ascendancy.With the introduction of Banks’ Ivan Murphy at half-time, however, the Jersey pack was beefed up a good deal, and from looking a jaded team a spark was kindled in the home side as they showed real promise in the final quarter the game.A hint of what was to come came when outside centre Hugh Bond gained 20 yards before being brought down.

Then, from a line-out, Niall Brennan ran the ball at the opposition before passing across the threes to winger Mark Le Mottée, who scored.

In windy conditions, Toudic converted.After that, Guernsey never looked like scoring, unlike Jersey, whose three-quarters began to run the opposition ragged.

Finch scored again, running in a try made by man-of the match Nick Trower, whose boundless energy saw him cover every inch of the pitch.The score was now 22-10 and after promising so much early on Guernsey looked jaded.

They then had to line up behind the tryline again, as Toudic attempted yet another conversion following a Finch try, made by the pack.Finch was to score again in the 66th minute, before Murphy galloped through a huge hole in the heart of Guernsey’s defence to make it 32-10.

Toudic’s conversion brought it to 34-10, several scores beyond Guernsey’s grasp, before Finch scored yet again – his fourth try for the Island side and, yet again, made by Trower.However, if 39-10 sounds like a rout, it wasn’t.

Guernsey were, for many minutes of the game, the better side.

But they didn’t master the conditions well enough in the first half and, in the second half they were outplayed by a marauding Jersey pack that gave their threequarters enough ball to dictate the pace of the game.As Steph Bampton, St Jacques’ captain said: ‘The difference was that we hadn’t trained together.

Jersey had.

They looked more of a team than we did and it showed in the last 20 minutes.’He was disappointed, but for Jersey coach Mark White, it was a question of waiting for his side to come good after that early setback.

‘It took some time for us to settle,’ White said, ‘but we had quality players in the threes and once they were given the ball, they made the most of it.

I was delighted by the way we played, particularly in the last 30 minutes of the game.’Jersey: Jim McCormack, Mark Le Mottée, Brett Ireland (Dan Ireland), Hugh Bond, Richard Finch, Darren Toudic, Steve Mee (Tim de Gruchy), Jim Fitzmaurice (Ken Moore), Sean Queripel (Wayne Andrieux), Jim Brimelow, Richard Vetier (captain), Roy Le Lievre, Michael Soley (Ivan Murphy), Niall Brennan, Nick Trower.Guernsey: Betrand Salt, Mark Stone, Barry Goude, Jason Brouard, Darren Holden, Chris Eyton-Jones, Matt Litten, Russ Roberts, Jason Mroch, Steve Heyward, Jon Coyde, Steph Bampton, Robbie Deweson, Ben Mahy, Mike Smith, Andy Ingrouille, Steve de Jersey, Carl Gardner, Pav Czarnecki, Ken Dickson.Referee: Peter Williams.

The match balls were sponsored by Graeme Le Maistre.

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