Jersey lost on Saturday against a strong Cinderford side who
lodged their first win of the season thanks to a last minute kick
by the league's top point scorer, Rory Teague.
Following an early exchange of penalties by Teague and Le
Bourgeois that left the sides level at 6-6 after 31 minutes, Jersey
were then reduced to 14 men when Kingsley Lang was sin-binned from
the resulting restart. This allowed Cinderford to apply pressure,
and following a couple of re-set scrums 5m from the Jersey line,
the home side got their reward as they were awarded a penalty try
that Teague converted - 13-6.
There was still time for Le Bourgeois to reduce the deficit to 4
points with another penalty, and so the score at half time was
13-9. This was a just reflection of the game that Cinderford had
dominated through the set pieces.
As is so often the case Jersey rallied after the break, but
errors in contact and a solid Cinderford defence prevented the
visitors making any in-roads. The home side then extended their
lead courtesy of another Teague penalty that resulted from an
off-the-ball skirmish on the hour mark taking the score to
16-9.
Jersey continued to press hard, bringing on replacements and,
when home lock, Ben West was sin-binned 4 minutes from time it gave
extra hope. The break-through finally came when Jersey was awarded
a penalty about 10m out. Before Cinderford could regroup, Le
Bourgeois took a quick tap and dived over under the posts for a try
that he then converted to level the scores at 16-16.
It looked as though Cinderford would again be denied a win in
the final moments of a game, but as the clock moved into the fifth
minute of injury time, Cinderford were awarded a penalty wide out
on the half-way line and Teague stepped up to give the home side a
deserved victory, with a monster kick that just dropped over the
posts.
Whilst disappointed, Jersey coach, Ben Harvey was humble in
defeat. He said, "Cinderford showed why they had earned 5 bonus
points from their first 5 games and, no way are a bottom of the
league club".
Jersey's next game is at St Peters on Saturday 8th
October against Wharfedale.
