Jersey RFC 28
Tries: Macfarlane (2), Drummond, Penberthy
Cons: Penberthy (4)
Old Alleynians 27
Tries: Crouch, Williams, Bobath, Osuntokun,
Cons: Crowley (2)
Pens: Crowley
JEP Player of the Match: Aaron Penberthy
If anybody fancied an afternoon of drama, then CoinShares Park was the place to be on Saturday afternoon as Jersey RFC Men held on for a razor-close victory over Old Alleynians after the most dramatic of endings.
“We certainly made it a good watch at the end, didn’t we?” joked RFC head coach, Myles Landick after everyone had taken a breath at full-time.
The visitors, who beat Jersey in the reverse fixture back in January, hit the ground running to catch a tired-looking RFC with an early try.
However, a double from Jack Macfarlane and some outstanding work from the boot of Aaron Penberthy gave the hosts a 14-12 half-time lead.
Heading into the final ten minutes, Old Alleynians found themselves in the lead, with a conversion to potentially take the game out of reach.
However, much to the visitors’ dismay, Chris Crowley at the tee was timed out by the referee for taking too long in his preparations and he was not allowed to attempt the two points.
Minutes later, Jersey wrestled their lead back, but only by a slender one point heading into the dying embers of a thrilling contest.
The drama hit boiling point, as a mistake in midfield led to a penalty for the visitors, about 40 yards out, but straight down the middle.
As CoinShares Park held its breath, Crowley sent his kick, which would surely be the last action, high into the air, but only to see the ball cannon off the left-hand upright.
Jersey’s players, seemingly resigned to defeat just seconds before, collected the ball and scrambled it out of play to seal the win and a collective big intake of breath from the home faithful.
Landick continued: “I thought today was a frustrating performance overall, to be honest.
“But one point I will make is that to be losing at home with three minutes to go and come back to win and have the heart and determination to do that is a heck of an effort from our boys. How we got to that position in the first place, though, I don’t know.
“We spoke at half-time and the lads brought up some great points for us to address in the second half, but we just never seemed to kick on.
“First and foremost, though, it’s a win, which we’re obviously really happy about.
“I think the Maidenhead game took quite a lot out of us emotionally, but for us to register a win today was brilliant. I’ve spoken to the boys at full-time and said, all these points we’re raising at half-time are all correct and spot on, but we need to get better at actioning them.
“There’s no good in talking about something and then not actually going on the field and putting it into action. That was a bit frustrating, and the boys feel a bit downhearted.
“We won the game, but we know we should have won it a lot more comfortably than we did, and I don’t mean that from an arrogant perspective.
“We had a dominant set piece, and, as I said, it’s another win we can chalk off and take these learnings forwards into the last game of the season.”
RFC captain Evan Whitson added his thoughts, saying: “That was a tight game, we made it really hard for ourselves, especially in the second half. But fair play to Old Alleynians, their defensive unit was really strong and they came at us hard in attack and found ways to break us down.
“I think we had a bit of luck on our side, as well as Penbo [Aaron Penberthy] from the tee, he was immense for us today.
“We relied on our set piece towards the end, which has always been a strong point for us. But it was satisfying to be on the right end of the result. We can take a lot of positives from coming through this one and keep working hard towards the final game and the Siam Cup.”
Grant McDonald reports…
Jersey RFC were eight points off leaders London Welsh and 22 points clear of CS Stags 1863, going into this penultimate game of the Regional 1 South Central season against seventh-placed Old Alleynians.
Despite Jersey going behind early through a Ben Williams try and Crowley conversion for the OAs, I thought the first half was full of promise and Macfarlane was instrumental in that resilience in response to the early setback.
Penberthy was making conversions look like training drills, as he displayed class and consistency. However, the OAs may feel as if their kicking (or perhaps luck) is where they were let down today.
The away side scored to go 27-21 up with 10 minutes left on the clock, but the resulting conversion was abandoned after the ref deemed the kicker to have taken too long, which would have really put the game out the balance.
A very topsy-turvy affair, but Jersey would’ve felt they didn’t deserve to be that far behind with little time left.
Then unbelievably, with the score at 28-27 to the Islanders, a penalty with the last kick of the game after Tom Tilstone commits the foul and OAs have the chance to win it from 40 metres.
Time seemed to stand still at CoinShares Park, the ball sailed through the air crashing into the left post and out to safety.
A monumental roar from the home crowd, the final whistle blew and that was that.
RFC Men’s squad: [1-15] Joe Ridgway, Jack Macfarlane, Tom Wilson, Max Ayling, Euan Spencer, Tom Tilstone, Evan Whitson (c), Jerry Sexton, Jacques De la Bat, Aaron Penberthy, Mark Boarer, Dan Barnes, Nathan Rogers, Rory Drummond, Tom Williams
Replacements: George Thomas, Bryn Edwards, Eryk Swiech
