Awesome 20 minutes not enough

Weybridge Vandals 23, Guernsey 12

TWO Jim Elliott tries were not enough for Guernsey as Weybridge Vandals inflicted a fourth straight London Three South-West defeat on the Sarnians. The visitors outscored their hosts in terms of tries but were left ruing their indiscipline, which cost them the game.

'It was better than it has been. The problem we have got again was that we only played for 20 minutes,' said coach Colin McLatchie.

'In that 20 minutes, we performed better than any of the sides we have played so far in this league. We were simply awesome, scored two excellent tries, but that was from minutes 55 to 75.'

By that time Guernsey were playing catch-up.

At half-time they had found themselves 12-0 down after conceding too many kickable penalties.

The Weybridge Vandals fly half converted them and also kicked three drop goals in an 18-point performance.

'The preparation was disrupted with a delayed flight, but that is often the case. For some reason we are just not turning up in the first 40,' McLatchie said.

'Unfortunately, schoolboy errors are costing us big-style. We gave away 33 penalties during the game and we got punished. The entire game was won by their number 10.

'Fitness-wise we blew them off the park, which was a positive.'

McLatchie praised the individual performances of Elliott and Ben Le Huray, who were both playing out of position at outside centre and fullback respectively.

Man of the match, though, was number eight James Regnard, whose display the coach described as 'fantastic'.

Guernsey's next fixture is at home to Winchester on Saturday.

'Once we get that elusive first win it will be a different story. We have just got to keep focused on the positive aspects of our game.' McLatchie said.