REACTIONS and responses are pivotal in sport, and Jersey RFC’s travelling contingent were delighted to witness their side return to winning ways in Wiltshire on Saturday.
After last week’s shock defeat at home to Guildford, there’s been a rallying cry and a reset for Myles Landick’s side, who were boosted by the presence of the red chino brigade being in full swing to brighten up an otherwise grey day in Salisbury. The 66-5 win is the Island side’s biggest winning margin of the season, and is a stark reminder to their league rivals of their hunger to wrap up the Regional 2 South Central title at the first time of asking, over the next few fixtures.
While Jack Macfarlane led the side to the ten-try win – in the absence of club captain Evan Whitson – it also means the leaders have stretched their margin in the table to 12 points, with nearest challengers Winchester missing out on the bonus point in their win over third-top Tottonians.
Attack coach James Mitchell was a smiling figure after the final whistle.
He said: “It was a really good display, and it was particularly excellent after last week. We sort of let ourselves down last week a little bit, particularly with our performance in the contact area and a lack of physicality.
“But the response we’ve seen was good, and the performance itself was really pleasing.
“It is the manner that we went out there, to score tries and play some free attacking rugby. We had a few youngsters in the team, such as Harvey Evans and Callum Cuthbert, which was also nice to see. Harvey got the scoresheet and Callum had some nice touches, so seeing them get some game time and developing is a real bonus.
“How dominant we were in attack impressed me, our ball carrying was way better to last week against Guildford, there were times in the game were we could have got into a game of basketball. But we kept out heads, and kept it tight, and so that was pleasing from last week.”
The 28-year-old opened up on how different the past week has felt, and called it “refreshing”, after their 36-game winning run came to a close.
The ex-Northampton Saints, Connacht and Jersey Reds half-back said: “The manner of the win was the most impressing element, we could have quite easily lost our confidence after last week, and gone into our shells, but we never did, we came out fighting.
“Both in training, and in the game against Salisbury we showed some real fight and that was the really pleasing thing, especially as an attack coach.
“Obviously we didn’t want to lose against Guildford, but it has been refreshing. It’s been really good, and the reason why is we’ve seen how much all the lads care. They lost last week, and all the boys were gutted about it, it brought it back to why we do it, why we spend our evenings training and our Saturday’s playing. “We maybe got a bit ahead of ourselves, but to lose and come back how we did, the boys really care about the team, and the Island, and it’s showed in our response.”
Mitchell felt it was one of the most vital wins of the season, and stated that apart from the win, seeing the boys play with a smile on their face was just as important.
He added: “The main thing for me is I want to see the boys have fun, it may sound a bit corny but I’ve seen it first hand that you play your best rugby when you have fun, and last week we maybe put too much pressure on ourselves, and we didn’t have that much fun.
“But we went back to basics a bit, chucked the ball around, had some fun, played some good rugby and its been excellent.
“We mixed the team up, and give all the lads some exposure ahead of next season, we’re trying to balance between winning the title this season, and planning for next season.
“Its really exciting that we’re getting close to our goal to win the league this season, but we’ve also got to think of how we’re developing for next season, what we need to work on, such as our kicking game and ball in hand, so we can drive our style moving forward.”
