The bedding-in of a host of newcomers is showing signs of being a quicker process than in previous seasons, with Saturday’s pulsating 34-27 bonus-point victory over the dogged and inventive Bedford Blues the second Championship win in a row for Harvey Biljon’s boys and their third in six games. Mid-table, they are just one point behind Welsh after the weekend’s games.
| P | W | D | L | BP | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yorkshire Carnegie | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 25 |
| Bristol | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 24 |
| London Scottish | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 19 |
| Rotherham | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 17 |
| Doncaster | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 17 |
| Bedford | 6 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 16 |
| London Welsh | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 15 |
| Jersey | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 14 |
| Nottingham | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 13 |
| Cornish Pirates | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 10 |
| Ealing | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 8 |
| Moseley | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 6 |
Although a neck injury to Australian back-rower Nick Haining – now not as serious as first thought – took the shine off the rare bonus-point win, Jersey’s points total moves to a healthy 14, although the middle of the division continues to be tight, with just four points separating fourth to ninth.
Jersey are, however, by no means getting carried away by Saturday’s performance . . . that much was emphasised as not being the case and the coaching staff are all too aware that there is still much to work on.
But with the injury list easing and the imminent arrival of reinforcements after the World Cup exits of Tonga (Sami Fisilau) and England (loan-signing Will Rowlands who has been covering for Joe Launchbury at Wasps), plus the beefing up of the pack with Australian Dave McKern, all help make the signs positive.
Said head coach Harvey Biljon after the final whistle: ‘First up, I’ve got to give credit to Bedford for continuing to play in the manner they did throughout, despite all the injuries they suffered. We’ve been in that position before last season so we know how tough it is, so you must acknowledge their efforts.
‘We can, however, be pretty proud of picking up maximum points today.
‘It was emphasised throughout the week that we needed to hit the ground running; play with pace and power, win the race off the floor and be prepared to keep the ball – and I think for the first 25 minutes we showed that. But after that we needed to step up with our concentration levels.’
In particular reference to Bedford’s third, breakaway try from a tap penalty deep in their own half, Biljon added: ‘We spoke about that, so that’s an area of disappointment. We’d worked hard on our defence this week, but that’s where we are with this group at the moment – we need to learn from these experiences and not make the same mistakes again.
‘In a game of such small margins and against a team who can go from anywhere like Bedford you have to stay alive to the dangers.
‘It took us about eight months to learn what we were about last season; we’ve got to learn quicker – we could have let victory slip away today. We must stay focused and on task. But am I excited about the raw materials in the squad? Yes, I am, but we have to go out there and deliver under pressure.’
Forwards coach Steve Boden added: ‘There were aspects of the performance we’ll have to look at. It wasn’t amazing but we got over the line.
‘The main thing was a lack of concentration at times. It seemed as though at 21-3 we thought we’d won the game, but against a quality, well-coached outfit like Bedford it was never going to be easy.
‘There were times when we had them under pressure, we relieved that pressure with errors and they capitalised on it.
‘I’m extremely happy with the result and the players worked really hard to get that win – probably harder than they needed to. With concentration it could have been a bit easier than it was in the end.
Man of the match Tom Howe: ‘That’s two wins on the bounce now and the boys will be looking forward to playing London Welsh next week.
‘As a back-three player these are the kind of games you want – open with lots of space to run in. But that’s probably the toughest game I’ve ever played in, so I’m really happy to get the five points.
‘I’m loving playing for Jersey, the Island’s great and the culture, with the crowd really getting behind us every match – that’s really great.’
Just how tough the Championship is was again reflected in the round six results, with two teams below Jersey in the table, Nottingham and Cornish Pirates both recording victories over vaunted ‘Exiles’, London Welsh and London Scottish, respectively. Welsh lost their captain, last year’s double Jersey player of the year Ryan Hodson to an early injury, making him a doubt for this weekend’s clash against the Islanders. Bottom club Moseley, who had three players yellow carded against Jersey last weekend, made it even harder on themselves at Rotherham, having four players in the bin at one point, although that’s not reflected in the 37-27 loss. New boys Ealing picked up an impressive bonus point in a 26-21 defeat against big guns Bristol.
