Jersey won the Siam Cup for a sixth consecutive year, but were
given a testing afternoon by a determined Guernsey side.
The visitors made a strong start, with Mark McCrea going close
only for a knock-on to end the threat. Scrum-half Nicky Griffiths
was a lively presence until being forced from the field around the
20 minute-mark with an injury. Griffiths was involved twice in his
team's opening score, making an initial break and then being on
hand a few seconds later to race down the right. Niall O'Connor
converted.
Griffiths and McCrea were again involved in setting up Ed Dawson
for Jersey's second, and an O'Connor cross-kick may have set up the
third but for miscommunication between McCrea and Dawson as the
ball came down near the corner.
As Jersey began to dominate, a punishing series of drives was
soaked up by the tenacious home defence, however something had to
give and eventually Mark Foster crossed.
A number of replacements were introduced early in the second half
but Jersey continued to press and crossed twice from set-piece
lineout drives, Joe Buckle and Sam Lockwood were the scorers.
Arguably the pick of Jersey's tries was the sixth, which came
directly from the kick-off and featured fine interplay from Foster
and replacement James Copsey before Tom Brown galloped down the
touchline to cross in the corner.
While other sides may have wilted after a physical contest played
in warm sunshine, Guernsey continued to play with spirit and
received their just reward when scrum-half Dale Rutledge went over
in the closing stages. The eventual winning margin of 31 points
made light of the three-level gap between the sides in the RFU
pyramid and showed Guernsey will be among the challengers for
promotion to National Two South next season.
Guernsey: Whitehead; J Batiste, McDougall,
Campbell, Taylor; Ball, Rutledge; Craine, Ceillam, L Batiste,
Hillier, Merrien, Thomas, Le Cocq, Barton.
Replacements: Garner, Hobbs, Bellingham, Garner, Dacres,
O'Hanlon, Sayer, Challinor.
Jersey: Burroughs; Foster, Bishop (Copsey),
McCrea, Dawson; O'Connor (Dudley), Griffiths (Williams); McCarthy
(Lockwood), Stratford (Taione), Brennan (capt) (Selway), Rae, Voss
(Markham), Makaafi (Maidment), Buckle, Brown.
Half-time: 0-19
Attendance: 2,000 (est)
Referee: Phil Davies
Assistant Referees: Paul Kimber and Richard
Kelly
Scorers
Jersey
Tries: Griffiths, Dawson, Foster, Buckle, Lockwood,
Brown
Cons: O'Connor (2); Dudley (2)
Guernsey
Try: Rutledge
Con: Whitehead
Other matches
Nash Cup
Jersey Wanderers battled back from a 24-7 half-time deficit to
claim the honours in the Veterans match. Jersey's try scorers were
Matt Davenport-Brown, Craig Simeon, Rory Steel and James Milner,
with Darren Toudic adding four conversions, and the final score was
24-33.
Fallaize Cup
Jersey fielded a 2nd team squad mixing youth and experience, and
although it was the home team who scored first, the men in red
seized control and eventually finished comfortable winners
24-43.
Ladies Siam
Guernsey led a close contest 8-5 at half-time but eventually
pulled clear to give the hosts their only win of the day by
27-10.
