A quickly-arranged fixture to help the Army prepare for their inter-services clash with the Navy at Twickenham, it was an entertaining and mostly tight affair until the closing minutes when the soldiers added late tries for a 31-7 victory. But it was hard earned, with Athletic leading 7-3 at half time thanks to an excellent tap penalty break from Ryan Glynn being finished off by fellow professional Tobias Hoskins and converted by Joel Dudley.
Athletic’s huge squad, containing many youngsters, made it a good work-out for the Army, who were forced to step up their game in the second half to secure victory. This they did with tries from Tames Tamptawale, James Dixon, Luke Robinson and Darius Hamilton, with Dixon also kicking 11 points. Athletic’s coach Nathan Kemp came on for the closing minutes for his last bit of rugby action in the Island before returning to New Zealand.
Jersey Athletic are away in the Zoo Shield Premiership against Old Albanians this weekend.
1 Jacob Carter, 2 Stephen de Ste Croix, 3 Jon Brennan, 4 John Allo, 5 Kingsley Lang (capt), 6 Graham Bell, 7 Gary Graham, 8 Nick Trower; 9 Ryan Glynn, 10 Joel Dudley; 11 Jay Host, 12 Ross Allan, 13 Tobias Hoskins, 14 Brian Rennison, 15 Sam Fuller. Rolling replacements: 16 Andy Pitcher, 17 David Day, 18 Chris Sutherland, 19 Harry Chinn (started, inj), 20 Tim Corson, 21 Kaisa Leota, 22 Brendan O’Brien, 23 Ben De Figuerado, 24 Henry Frost, 25 Sion Williams, 26 Dominic Mayo, 27 Bryn Edwards, 28 Simon Johnson.
