JRFC Ladies opened their account in National Challenge South East South 1 with a deserved victory over Old Beccehamians at St Peter on Sunday.
Missing several regular players - and head coach Dave Markham who was travelling back from Doncaster - the inexperienced side will have done their confidence the power of good with this display, which featured some outstanding defensive work.
Two tries from No 10 Una Murcha - one of them a 60m special - and another from flying full-back and Island Games' athlete Katie Silva, earned Jersey the 17-7 victory, with Laura Poingdestre kicking one conversion.
Beccehamians , who were late in arriving due to a flight delay - which caused the match to be reduced to 30 minutes each way - were a committed bunch, but had little answer to the speed available to the Jersey back line.
Backs coach Rhys Owen, a JRFC pro, was pleased with the result: "There are so many new faces here today, which is great. The defence today showed good organisation for such an inexperienced group. Of course there are a lot of things to work on, but also many positives."
The tall Murchu scored on the left after a kick through and chase had eventually led to a turnover, with the ball fed out from the centre to leave the stand-off with one covering defender to beat, which she did with ease.
Good work from Lauren Lowe in setting Silva away on the right touchline was rewarded with the latter scorching past several defenders to score in the corner.
Although Beccehamians came back strongly in the second half, with centre Ebba Wiebrig ending a move, starting from a line out, Jersey kept calm and sealed the points near the death when Murchu took a ball standing near her own 10m line and slipped through the visitors' defence with a silky run to the posts.
Jersey scorers
Tries: Murchu (2), Silva
Conversion: Poingdestre
Report courtesy of the Jersey Evening Post
