Rugby reaction: Scottish reign after Reds’ early promise

This was a game that Jersey, with two excellent tries from Drew Locke in the bag, looked capable of winning in style, but Scottish gave a demonstration of why they remain third in the Championship, with a play-off spot almost in the bag, in coming back from 15-3 down to record a comfortable-sounding 31-18 victory at St Peter.

Jersey RFC 18

Tries: Locke 10, 24

Cons: Penberthy 10; Pens: Penberthy 20, 42

London Scottish 31

Tries: Williams 28; Bright 55, 79

Cons: Lydon 28, 55; Pens: Lydon 5, 33, 62, 74

Kicking records: Lydon 6 from 7; Penberthy 3 from 5.

Randall’s man-of-the-match: Mark Bright

Attendance: 2,223. Referee: Steve Lee.

For the most part, however, comfortable it certainly wasn’t. Although they dominated the second period, with only an early penalty adding to Jersey’s half-time lead, the Exiles came off the park knowing they had been in a real struggle to add four more points to their play-off campaign.

They did so through their much-vaunted forwards and their impressively effective maul in particular, with No 8 Mark Bright, the division’s top try-scorer, twice dropping on the ball at the back of his pack. That, and a near faultless kicking display from Championship player of the month nominee Peter Lydon, took them a big step towards the end-of-season showdowns.

But they could also reflect that they had the rub of the green with some tight calls over yellow card offences, with Jersey suffering two sin-binnings and the visitors none. Referee Steve Lee, in his first Championship fixture of the season, is no stranger to controversy at Jersey (he was in charge of the near legendary mud-bath victory over Rotherham two seasons ago on pitch No 2), but this time it was the home crowd (and doubtless the coaching staff too), that were, at turns, perplexed and angry at some of his, and his assistants’ decisions (and non-decisions).

Jersey (1-15): Sam Lockwood, Martin Garcia-Veiga, Harry Williams, Nick Campbell, Pierce Phillips, Alex Rae (capt), Ryan Hodson, Nick Haining, Sami Fisilau, Lewis Robling (Y34); Fautua Otto, Mark McCrea, Drew Locke, Mark Foster, Aaron Penberthy. Replacements: Dave Markham for Phillips 54; Joe Buckle for Garcia-Veiga 63; Danny Herriott for Williams 63; Nacho Lancuba (Y69) for Haining 54-64, then Lockwood 64; Ryan Glynn for Fisilau 76; Paula Kaho for Haining 79; Bentley not used.

London Scottish: James Hallam, James Stephenson, Ben Prescott, Josh Thomas Brown, James Phillips, Gregor Gillanders, Lewis Ludlow, Mark Bright, Jamie Stevenson, Peter Lydon, Miles Mantella, Matt Hawke, Kieran Moffat, Matt Williams, Lee Millar. Replacements: Preocanin, Walker, Heeks, Donehgan, Cherry, Maguire, Lilley.

Leading the way in that respect was the tackle Scottish winger Matt Williams made on scrum-half Sami Fisilau as he positioned himself to take a high ball in front of the clubhouse, closely-followed by the dangerous dumping of hooker Martin Garcia-Veiga. Both were punished by penalty awards only, with Williams, often a pain in Jersey’s side during his time at Moseley and Scottish, rubbing salt in the wound by going on to score the visitors’ opening try with some sharp footwork.

Other results: Mosley 17, Doncaster 20; Bristol 51, Nottingham 17; Worcester 29, Plymouth 8; Yorkshire 15, Bedford 8; C Pirates 10, Rotherham 28.

Jersey’s No 10 Lewis Robling and late replacement prop Nacho Lancuba were not so fortunate, with the fly-half seeing yellow for a tackle off the ball in the first half (one that he would have had trouble avoiding) and the Argentinian youngster deemed to have taken a player out in the air.

Tight calls can be the difference in tight matches, but Jersey will doubtless also be keen to dissect just how Scottish managed such a turn around in fortunes after an electric opening from the Reds.

Granted a dry-ish pitch for the first time in months there was a genuine joie de vivre with Jersey’s approach in the first quarter or so, when the crowd of 2,223 lapped up some incisive and exciting 15-man rugby. This team have clearly been straining at the leash (or rather raging at the weather) in eagerness to show the home fans just what they are capable of. They did so in style, with outside centre Locke grabbing the headlines with two tremendous finishes and new boy Tua Otto revealing real menace both on the wing and when thrusting through the centre. But it was the approach of the whole team in possession that impressed and many of the home crowd would have been dreaming of a famous victory after 25 minutes or so.

That they failed to do so underlines not only the class and nous of Scottish, but also the learning curve the Reds are still on.

Next up Championship leaders Worcester, presenting another opportunity to impress against the best.

Mark Bright, scorer of Jersey Scottish’s two second-half tries: ‘I told the boys before the game that we want to start well, but we did the complete opposite. Fair credit to Jersey, they came out flying, but at 15-3 down we still had 65 minutes to put things right, which we did. As No 8 I can’t tell you what was happening in the scrums, but you take the rough with the smooth in this game. Jersey is a hard place to come and play rugby and the boys who haven’t been here before soon found that out. But we kept our cool, put our heads down and ground out the victory.’

Jersey’s head coach Harvey Biljon: ‘You could see two quality teams out there. There is a reason London Scottish are third in the table, but I thought our attitude and game plan was the right one. Where we perhaps fell down was that we didn’t adapt at crucial times to the referee’s interpretation of decisions, while there were also some silly moments of ill discipline which we need to correct.

‘It was a game of small margins and one or two small errors can make a huge difference. We are disappointed we didn’t come away with anything today, especially with the amount of positives we can take out of that game today.’

5 mins: Scottish maul wins straightforward penalty for Lydon. 0-3

10: TRY – Excellent score for Jersey with Mark Foster and Williams on the right helping get the ball to Drew Locke in the centre, where evasive running at its best takes him through several challenges and under the posts. Penberthy converts with ease. 7-3

16: More great work sees Mark McCrea put in the charging Fautua Otto, but he’s stopped just short.

20: Jersey get penalty after dangerous tackle on Martin Garcia-Veiga but, as with an earlier challenge on Sami Fisilau, the expected yellow is not shown. Penberthy extracts revenge by landing the penalty. 10-3

22: TRY – A crossfield kick from Scottish goes badly wrong when Otto collects and storms down the left flank before passing outside to Locke, who does superbly well to touch down in the corner despite a strong covering challenge. Jersey are flying. 15-3

22: Penberthy is wide with the difficult conversion from the clubhouse side.

28: TRY – Scottish hit back when fast ball from a lineout in the pavilion corner finds winger Mark Williams who scoots over by the posts. Lydon makes it a seven-point raid with the conversion. 15-10

34: Jersey stand-off Lewis Robling is yellow carded for tackling a player without the ball, but there seemed little if any chance, to avoid the collision. Lydon slots over penalty from under the posts. 15-13

37: Down to 14, Jersey respond well, but Penberthy is wide with a 40m pen from the left.

42: Jersey’s maul wins another penalty chance for Penberthy near the 22 metre line, and he bangs it over. Robling returns and Jersey are looking good again. 18-13

55: TRY – Scottish start turning the screw as scrum decisions start consistently go against the home side. A penalty line-out move has the division’s top try scorer Mark Bright score from the back of a maul in the Airport corner. Lydon increases the damage to put the visitors in front again. 18-20

62: Another penalty against Jersey from a scrum; Lydon kicks it from the right of the posts. 18-23

69: Jersey’s problems increase with the yellow-carding of replacement prop Nacho Lancuba.

74: Several scrum resets – then a penalty to Scottish, which Lydon kicks. 18-26

79: TRY – Scottish penalty is kicked to touch, with Bright scoring his second try from the resultant maul in the Airport corner. Lydon misses his first kick of the day, but the result is beyond doubt now. 18-31

Championship points: Jersey 0; London Scottish 4