HARVEY BILJON may not have come away with a Premiership scalp, but nevertheless declared himself ‘really chuffed’ with the pre-season programme for his Jersey Reds side.
After coming within two points of London Irish the previous weekend, the Reds were more soundly beaten by a Bath side who were able to control the tempo of the game on a humid evening.
But the Reds stayed in the contest, claiming three of the game’s nine tries, and should be well-placed to hit the ground running as they start their RFU Championship season away to Ampthill this Saturday.
‘I’m really chuffed with the preparation we’ve had for the season,’ the Reds director of rugby said afterwards. ‘If we ever wanted to test ourselves against power and speed we’ve had that over the past three weeks and hopefully that puts us in a great position.’
Having scheduled a match for the weekend prior to the opening round of league matches for the first time since 2014, Biljon was also relieved that most of his squad appeared to survive the evening without significant injury, although lock James Scott hobbled off and could be a doubt for this weekend.
A high penalty count against the home side was a feature of the first half, starting with a transgression within five seconds of Bath’s kick-off and continuing with a stream of concessions from scrums.
Featuring props capped by England and Namibia, plus a hooker with more than 150 top-flight appearances, the Bath front row was well on top, and this set the platform for numerous kicks to the corner and attacking lineout drives: a pragmatic but eventually effective approach.
Prop Beno Obano powered over from close range within two minutes of the start, although the Reds responded swiftly when Tomi Lewis ran diagonally off his wing towards the posts and took a well-timed pass from James Elliott from the back of a maul.
The hosts’ try came from just about their only foray into Bath’s 22 during the first half. Otherwise it was all about defence, and while honours remained even on the scoreboard as the second quarter began, the pressure was growing.
After a team warning, Macauley Cook was yellow-carded as the next offender and soon afterwards, with Jordan Holgate filling in at the scrum, the visitors used the space out wide to send Matt Gallagher over. Skipper Ben Spencer then pilfered a try by intercepting a short lineout, with Reds’ protests about Bath being beyond the specified numbers at the set-piece waved away, and then Niall Annett finished a maul.
Both sides retained the majority of their starting XVs for the early stages of the second half ahead of multiple substitutions. Tom Dunn steered a maul over the line and then Max Green, returning to Jersey after a loan spell in 2021, was in the right place to take a scoring pass from Gabriel Hamer-Webb after the winger had collected his own kick ahead.
Replacement hooker James Hadfield added two late tries to lift spirits among the home side, who rushed back into position in a quest for another score, only for possession to be given back to Bath via an ill-advised kick that allowed the winners to end the contest.
Bath’s new head of rugby, Johan Van Graan, described the game, which formed the climax of a five-day training camp – attended by more than 90 people at one stage – as ‘very satisfactory’. Several England internationals, including Will Stuart, Sam Underhill and Jonathan Joseph – the latter a late withdrawal as a precaution – watched from the sidelines and could return for the local derby against Bristol Bears this Friday as the league season gets under way.
