Injury-ravaged Guernsey see title bid fizzle out

Guernsey 5, Dorking 16

GUERNSEY were left drowning their sorrows rather than toasting their success as their London Four South-West campaign fizzled out with barely a whimper on Saturday. 'They turned our celebrations into their celebrations,' was Rob Box's apt summing up of Dorking's victory at Foote's Lane.

You cannot take anything away from the Sarnians for what has, overall, been a terrific season in which they have secured a second successive promotion, but April has been a major disappointment thus far.

Let's hope the Siam Cup can bring the best out of them once more.

Forced into re-arranging his backline following last week's injury to Stuart Lloyd-Jones, Box was soon ruing his horrendous luck with injuries as Divan Crouse suffered an ankle problem as early as the third minute.

Guernsey had started brightly, but the momentum was halted as soon as the South African scrum half went down.

He managed to hobble through until the ninth minute of the second half, but his obvious discomfort affected Guernsey's fluency badly.

However, his countryman, Louw Brand, still had a couple of straightforward penalty chances to get Guernsey on their way within the opening quarter-of-an-hour.

It was obvious that it was not going to be their day, though, when he dragged the first one wide and the second struck the outside of the post.

The closest Guernsey came to a try in what turned out to be a scoreless first half was on 27min.

Iain Johnston popped the ball to his centre partner, Carl Johnson, who took it at full-tilt on the crash ball and just when it seemed that he had just full-back Chris Pieters to beat, the long arm of Dorking captain Armand Roux reached backwards to execute a perfect tap tackle.

Shortly after the turnaround, the visitors broke the deadlock thanks to the left boot of Richard Kemp when James Regnard had, somewhat harshly, been penalised in the ruck area on his own 22.

Dorking doubled their lead moments after Crouse was finally replaced with Kemp slotting over from a similar position to his previous successful attempt.

Guernsey's play was now strewn with errors with balls constantly being grounded or penalties and free kicks being given away in a very disjointed match.

Any breakthrough seemed more likely to come from the red-and-whites and it arrived on 58min.

A line-out just a few metres from the Guernsey line was stolen and the powerful Dorking pack patiently shoved their hosts backwards before hooker Julian Bambridge touched down.

Ten minutes later, they repeated the dose in identical fashion, Bambridge again emerging with the ball and the game was beyond the Sarnians at 16-0.

In between the two tries, Regnard had been in the sin bin after frustration got the better of him from a re-start and he took the catcher out in mid-air.

It was not until the 84th minute and the last play of the match that the big home crowd had something to cheer.

Following a line-out 30 yards out on the right, Matt Morgan received the ball and set off on a phenomenal run that left defenders either lying on the floor or grasping at thin air before he dived over in the corner.

Despite the superb nature of the try, it was scant consolation for what was a disappointing performance.

'They were the better team and I am getting used to saying that,' Box said.

'They came over here with a game plan and they stuck to it - all credit to them. They killed the ball in the ruck area and the referee played to them.

'But I cannot use the referee or the way they played as an excuse - I have got to look at my own team and I have tried to get their heads up afterwards.

'We are still promoted - Dorking have probably been in this league 10 years now whereas we have been in it 10 minutes and have got out of it - but we did not have a lot towards the end of the season.'