JERSEY RFC’s head coach Myles Landick leapt in euphoria and was at the centre of the final-whistle celebrations as the side kept their title hopes alive with a famous last-minute win over London Welsh on Saturday.
Loosehead prop Huw Owen scored the winning try in a do-or-die final play of a hugely intense game to cause pandemonium among the hundreds of delighted Jersey fans who had made the trip over to south-west London.
Caesarean flags were flown and cow bells rung around Old Deer Park in Richmond throughout the sold-out occasion, which started with the London Welsh Male Voice Choir singing in the club house and finished with Landick and co belting out several songs in the changing rooms.
Against the odds the St Peter-based side secured a dramatic 28-24 win over the Regional 1 South Central leaders to close the gap between the pair to just five points with four games left.
An emotional Landick, who threw his hat in the air as Owen scored, said: “My heart was racing, but I’m just so pleased for the lads, we do lots of travelling every other week and we said we’ll dig in until the end. We always had that belief that we could pull it off up to the final whistle and that paid off.”
Jersey’s second-half performance – nilling London Welsh for the 40 minutes – was crucial, and Landick added: “100%, that was huge. We spoke at half-time that we didn’t play in the right areas, didn’t look after the ball and credit to Welsh they put us under pressure but we made it clear where we needed to be a bit cuter.
“What was really pleasing is when we played Welsh in Jersey we had a dominant set-piece, and we had another dominant set-piece, and ultimately that’s what won us the game really.
“Our front-row were massive today but generally one-to-18 put in a huge defensive effort, getting off the line to make sure they got their shots.
“We perhaps didn’t put Welsh to the sword enough when they were down to 13-men in the second-half but remember it’s a very tough place to come, they were unbeaten in over a year so I’m just really pleased.”
The win inflicts a first defeat on London Welsh in over a year, with the Exile side unbeaten for 23 games before the fraught and feisty summit clash on Saturday.
One of the stand-out performers in Jersey’s win was Guy Thompson, the retired 38-year-old former Wasps, Leicester Tigers and Jersey Reds No.8 rolled back the years to make his first competitive league game since May 2022.
Playing at inside-centre, Thompson scored Jersey’s third try, and said: “I’m massively proud with this win, and the effort to win in the last play of the game at unbeaten Welsh.
“I told the boys to be gracious in winning, as they are still ahead of us in the league. I said let’s enjoy the win, lets respect them, have a couple of beers but we need to get back to work as there’s still four big games left this season.”
On what it was like being back at the heart of battle, he added: “This is what rugby is like outside of the professional environment, two amazing clubs with lots of history and heritage going toe-to-toe in front of over a thousand people and just playing rugby because they enjoy it.
“Today was a great example of that. Rugby is a really honest sport and if you’re off it slightly then someone will find you out.
“Huge credit to London Welsh, I know their coaches well, I played with two of them, their side have a lovely shape and they threw everything at us.
“The start was huge as we let them get 19-0 up at St Peter, it was a big thing that we spoke about beforehand, making sure we started well.
“We did, but we switched off. So playing 80 minutes at this level consistently is still something we need to work towards.
“To get the win at the end was superb, and to get five points is massive and we need to continue focusing on ourselves to do what we can on the pitch.”
On whether we will see Thompson playing for Jersey again this season, he added: “I hope not. This won’t be a habit; it won’t be me playing every week.
“I’ve been helping out with the coaching this season and the boys needed someone to fill the 12 slot with Dan Barnes unavailable and I was happy I could help out.”
London Welsh director of rugby Cai Griffiths said: “First half we gave away seven penalties, second-half we coughed up 10. So 17 in total and it’s hard to win a game with that many penalties and three yellow cards.
“We’ll have to look at our discipline but there was some good effort there from our players, they showed some heart, especially when we were on our own line for five minutes with 13 men against a strong Jersey side. Ultimately, we’ll have to take our learnings from this game.”
