Jersey Loughborough Students: National Two
Promotion Play-Off: May 28th 2011: By Tom
Innes
Jersey 30 - 5 Loughborough Students 
    Overjoyed and soaked in champagne
and cold water, Jersey's Head Coach Ben Harvey praised his team for
playing to their strengths in overcoming Loughborough and seizing
promotion. "We played to our strengths and squeezed
the life out of them," he said. "I was delighted by the players'
attitude today, they certainly didn't need to be geed up for this
game. "We controlled the match from the start and by
the time they got on the board it was too late."
Harvey praised the efforts of the visiting Loughborough
squad, who he described as well-drilled and a credit to themselves
and their coaching team. But he was also focusing on some
full-throttle celebration before starting preparations for his
team's first-ever season in National One.
     After kicking off in front
of a boisterous home crowd, the first serious contact of the match
saw Jersey earn a penalty, coolly slotted by Mike Le Bourgeois with
only 99 seconds on the clock. Jersey's pack didn't
wait to impose themselves on their Loughborough counterparts and
the first scrum, which followed a mis-hit restart, saw another
penalty awarded and converted with aplomb from halfway by Le
Bourgeois. Loughborough rallied and kicked several
penalties to the corner rather than go for goal into the stiff
wind. But two of the resulting lineouts were lost, and Jersey were
also forcing key turnovers to remain in the ascendency. Just before
the half-hour mark another driven scrum saw Nick Trower pick up and
flip the ball scrum half Dave McCormack, who tore into the
Loughborough half and released James Copsey with a perfectly-timed
pass. The winger was already beyond his opposite number, and a
quicksilver dummy took him past full back Russell Weir and
scorching over the line. Le Bourgeois missed a
drop-kicked conversion after the ball was blown off the tee by the
wind. Though dominating the closing stages of the
half, the home team failed to score again, and the Students almost
managed a try of their own when Russell Weir exploited an overlap
but was called back for a forward pass.
     Nervous at half-time about
turning into the wind with a possibly inadequate lead, the Jersey
crowd were cheered by the pivotal moment of the match in the
opening minute of the second half. Donovan Sanders made the early
yards and then a rampaging pack surged over the line resulting in a
try for Nathan Hannay. Brimming with confidence and
sensing the chance to kill the game off, Jersey attacked again soon
afterwards, and Hannay registered a second try. The giant second
row touched down in the corner after bursting from a maul in a
direction not anticipated by the Students' defence.
Jersey's determination was epitomised by Graham Bell
struggling to his feet during treatment to stem a sortie by the
visitors, and Jersey's relentless pick-and-go tactics were the
perfect option playing into the wind.
     Loughborough heads didn't
drop and they were left with a man advantage just after the hour
when Jersey's Dave Felton saw yellow for killing the ball. Within
seconds the visitors attacked and George Drake's long pass created
an easy run-in for Ed Rolston. Some extended injury
breaks and numerous substitutions saw the game become disjointed in
the closing stages, but the home crowd never lowered the volume
levels and David Doherty sealed the win with the final move of the
game as he burst clear to score from Trower's pass.
     Loughborough's Dave Morris
said he was "gutted" that a special group of players, some of them
in their final game, had been denied promotion.
"There's lots of emotion, and I'd like to thank my boys," he
said. "Fair play to Jersey, they're a super club heading in the
right direction; they outpowered us and deserved their
win."

Scorers & Times
Jersey
Tries: Copsey 25, Hannay, 42, 48,
Doherty 81
Conversions: Le Bourgeois 42, 81
Penalties: Le Bourgeois 1, 3

Loughborough Students
Try: Rolston 65

Star man: Nathan Hannay (Jersey)
Attendance: 3,100
Referee: Darren Gamage
Half-time scoreline: Jersey 11 Loughborough
Students 0

STAT BOX (Jersey stats first)
Penalties conceded: 15-11
Lineouts won: 5-7
Lineouts lost: 0-2
Scrums won: 10-11
Scrums lost: 0-4
Sin bin: 1-0

Jersey: Le Bourgeois 7, Copsey 8, Henderson
7, Sanders 8, Doherty 7, Hawkes 8, McCormack 7 (O'Brien 78 N/A),
Maddocks 7 (Kenwright 40, 7), Felton 7, Brennan 8 (Holland 80 N/A),
Rodgers (capt) 8, Hannay 9 (Clyde-Smith T 80 N/A), Elphinston 7,
Bell 7 (Clyde-Smith C 59, 6), Trower, 8.

Loughborough Students: Weir 6, Wilson 8
(Lamming 78 N/A), Kinloch 6, Munro 7, Rolston 7, Keville 6 (Drake
48, 7), Macmanus 6 (Holland 61, 6), Parilli-Ocampo 6 (Steadman 48,
6), Hobbs 6, Bower 6 (Booley 80 N/A), Warden (capt) 7, Taylor 6,
Silcock 7, Waddingham 6, MacFarlane, 7.