Home crowd breathe relief as Grinstead run out of time

Guernsey ran in five tries, but the Garenne stand crowd were never permitted the chance to relax as the visitors ran in two quickfire tries at the end of both the first and second periods to threaten the victory party.

In both these periods Guernsey were down to 14 men due to yellow cards and the reality was that had the match gone on a further two minutes, East Grinstead might have pulled off a remarkable comeback win.

But, thankfully, after approaching 10 minutes of added time, the official finally blew for full time and Guernsey had opened their account for the season against a team many fancy to challenge strongly for promotion, just as they did last season in finishing third.

Jordan Reynolds, the coach, does not do gloating in victory, but the smile on his face beyond the final whistle said everything about the performance of his patched up side, which had Layton Batiste throwing into the line-outs and Richard Hile playing a stormer as emergency hooker.

'A bloody great win,' said the coach.

'I don't like to single out players but today our back row was absolutely outstanding and Robin was, without doubt, the man of the match.

'He must be the best open side in the league.'

• More in today’s Guernsey Press.