As in their two previous outings, the encounter with London Scottish saw the Reds blow hot and cold, falling short of a winning score at the end.
The end result may have yielded two bonus points for the visitors, but it left them anchored to the foot of the Championship table and desperate to kick-start the season on their long-awaited home debut, when Yorkshire Carnegie come to Stade Santander International this Friday.
‘It was a tough Championship game and credit to London Scottish for winning it,’ said head coach Harvey Biljon. ‘We created plenty of opportunities, but whereas we took them in the first half, we couldn’t do so after that.
‘When we take our chances, and start to get a few things to go in our favour, I’m confident results will come, and even in defeat the guys are really motivated and excited to be playing in front of our home crowd against Yorkshire on Friday.’
While pleased to have had the chance to show off his footballing skills in claiming his third try in as many league outings, Reds’ full-back Auguy Slowik admitted he would have given up the score for a Reds’ win.
‘It was disappointing that there were periods where we weren’t quite at the races and our discipline let us down. We backed ourselves to get the win at the end but the roll of the dice didn’t go for us, and we’ll be looking to make a real statement at home next time out.’
Replacement forward Charlie Beckett added: ‘We had real momentum going into half-time and couldn’t maintain that when we restarted. I think we could have won it at the end, and when that last maul went down – let’s say I’d have a different opinion to the referee as to what caused that to happen.’
For the third game in succession of a new league season, Jersey showed glimpses of exhilarating rugby, mixed with fallibility.
Once again it wasn’t enough and left the Reds one score short of victory.
A purple patch in the second quarter, during which time the visitors racked up 24 unanswered points, became a distant memory during a second half in which the Reds failed to score any points, while their hosts roared to a 27-24 lead and claimed their first Championship win in four attempts.
Match report in Monday’s Final Whistle.
