Tynedale 0 Jersey 64
Jersey made light of a tricky-looking away fixture by running in
10 tries in a thumping victory over Tynedale.
The 64-point tally was the highest achieved by any club in
National One this season, one better than Ealing managed earlier in
March against Cambridge. And more significantly, the Trailfinders
failed to match Jersey's bonus point win on Saturday. Macclesfield
full-back Ross Winney kicked a late penalty to secure a 34-34 draw
for his side with Ealing, who gained three points. With Fylde
securing an eventually comfortable 48-24 win against the Bees, who
were relegated as a result, the top three sees Jersey on 105pts,
Ealing on 99 and Fylde on 97.
Jersey started with a XV unchanged from the previous weekend,
while Toby Clyde-Smith was the unlucky man to miss out on a bench
spot from the 21 who travelled. Seeking early points to impose
themselves on Tyne, the Islanders massively exceeded expectations.
Within 23 minutes no fewer than five tries were registered. Guy
Thompson crossed for the first after just 5 minutes, and the
scoring was kept in the forwards as Dave Felton (first of the
season) and Nick Trower crossed. Dave McCormack secured the bonus
point and then it was James Copsey's turn to score. Ross Broadfoot
kicked three conversions to make it 31-0.
Maintaining this momentum was always going to be difficult and
in fact Jersey failed to score for the rest of the half as Tyne
partially found their stride and scrum-half Harry Peck went close
in the closing stages.
Regaining their focus after the break, Jersey picked up on their
try-scoring exploits with Donovan Sanders the next
scorer, courtesy of a fine solo run to the line, followed by
Copsey's 15th of the season, from a Sanders' assist, and a maiden
try for Jethro Rawling who had replaced Kingsley Lang. This took
the tally past 50 and Tyne weren't helped by a yellow card for back
row man Jamie Murray on the hour.
Scrum-half Nicky Griffiths had also joined the fray early in the
second period but unfortunately did not see as much game-time as
expected when he was adjudged to have performed a spear tackle and
received a red card.
The loss of Griffiths failed to stem the flow of tries with
Glenn Bryce scoring Jersey's ninth, and finally a second score by
Nick Trower in the 78th minute. Broadfoot went one better in the
second half converting four of the five tries.
Substitutes Charlie Clyde-Smith, Dai Bishop and James Gethings
all saw action in the final quarter of an hour, replacing Thompson,
Le Bourgeois and Ben Evans respectively.
Tynedale finished the afternoon a deflated side, watched by a
season-high home crowd of 580. Jersey were correspondingly
delighted, but know they will have to retain their focus as they
target a win from their next game, Macclesfield at home on April
14th.
