Rugby: A day to remember!

Not Jersey’s most vital victory, nor the most historic, but this day will command a special place in the hearts and record books of this proud club … it is quite simply the biggest scalp they have ever taken in their 139-year history.

Worcester are a club that oozes class, on and off the field, with their legions of fans – at least 600 made the journey to provide Jersey with their biggest home gate of the season – leaving with a glowing reputation on the St Peter terraces. They were gracious in an extremely rare defeat … this is their favourites’ first set-back in 24 games, with their only other defeat coming on the opening day against big promotion rivals Bristol. Unlike the latter’s head of management, however, Warriors’ boss Dean Ryan, also a big name in the world of rugby union, chose to hail Jersey, not berate them for poor facilities or a perceived limited playing style.

Said Ryan: ‘The wind made things difficult, but Jersey made it count. I couldn’t fault our intensity today, we fronted up to the challenge, but Jersey matched us. Fair play, they played it like a cup final and sometimes when a player knocks over a drop goal from half-way you just have to say “well done”.’

That winning strike, ten minutes from time, came from the boot of Aaron Penberthy, a fly-half who has grasped the chance of first-team rugby at full-back with both hands, and his performance in kicking five of six goal attempts, for 13 points, rightfully earned him the man-of-the match award. In contrast, Warriors’ Andy Symons never really got to grips with the St Peter swirl.

But although several players stood out, this was a tremendous team effort that fans will be eager to see repeated, particularly if it is embellished with the sort of action that brought about Tua Otto’s first try for the Islanders.

The former Bristol centre and Samoan international, signed last month, has already shown his threat, but his score on 20 minutes was sensational not just for his run, then kick-and-collect, but also for the build-up play that gave him the gap to charge through, with lock-forward Pierce Phillips showing soft hands that would grace an outside centre.

Having accumulated 37 points, even the most pessimistic fan will concede that Jersey’s place in the Championship next season is safe, with a top-half finish a more likely outcome if anything like Saturday’s form is maintained for the remaining four fixtures, starting with the away trip to Yorkshire Carnegie this Sunday.

There was high praise for referee Andrew Small’s mature handling of Saturday’s encounter and the Premiership official is certainly a welcome figure for the Reds … they’ve never lost a match he has taken charge of.

Steve Boden: ‘I thought the performance was generally very good, though there was a little bit of inaccuracy. Some of our mauling in the first half was disappointing, but the try we scored in the second was perfect, a drill we practised all last week.

‘We could have scored more points, yes, but overall, the way we defended, the work-rate and the desire to make contact was unbelievable. The boys’ attitude and desire to play for this club – which has been stupidly questioned in some quarters in the past – was tremendous. The boys care and they again showed they cared today.’

A CLEARLY choked Jersey RFC head coach Harvey Biljon spoke with passion about his players and their fans after Saturday’s sensational victory over promotion-chasing Worcester Warriors, who had started the day on top of the Championship.

From the pitch at St Peter, on which his team had delivered a dramatic 23-21 victory to end the Warriors’ 24-match unbeaten run, the South African said: ‘I am emotional, of course – after that I couldn’t help but be.

‘We spoke during the week about how the crowd could get behind us; and in the second half the way they started to lift and carry the players was exceptional.’

The victory, earned with a booming drop goal from Aaron Penberthy, keeps Jersey firmly in mid-table, now 17 points clear of relegation. Indeed, they are still only nine points off a play-off position themselves, though with only four matches remaining it’s highly unlikely they could launch a realistic bid to pip Nottingham, Rotherham, Yorkshire and Pirates to fourth spot.

But Jersey will play a huge role in determining final positions at the top and the bottom of the division and few will relish meeting the Reds after Saturday’s result. And it raises more than a few questions about how Championship clubs should respond to the Premiership’s calls to expand their division and do away with relegation and promotion.

Explaining how it came about, Biljon said: ‘We had a game plan and spoke about needing an 80-minute performance as Worcester always up the tempo in the second half of matches, so we needed real impact coming off the bench to carry us through. It was a real squad effort.

‘We had to make the selection based on where we needed to be at certain times in the match; it was a brave decision, but it came off.

‘The players have set their own goals and targets between now and the end of the season – and they took a big step towards achieving that today.’

On substitute Jonny Bentley’s excellent performance Biljon said: ‘Jonny has this knack of playing well against Worcester; he seems to be able to carve this way through them. The timing of the substitution was right; we had to up the tempo and start to play a little bit more and, fair play to him, he really put in some fantastic line-breaks, carries and also distribution. But, really, it comes down to the whole impact of everybody who came off the bench.’

‘Let’s enjoy our victory, but we’ll not get too carried away and just continue building on towards next week. But I’m pretty confident Worcester will go on to win the play-offs and get promoted – so we can say we’ve beaten a Premiership team!’

‘And how important is sport to the Island? Worcester had 600-plus people over here – that’s the number of tickets we sold to them – and some of them have been here since Tuesday, Wednesday last week. They’ve been fantastic, I think there were more Worcester people in St Helier this morning than anyone else. So many places do well from the visitors, especially when they come in these numbers.’

It’s a fantastic day, particularly after the London Scottish game which I think we could easily have won, but for some decisions going against us.’