Back-to-back wins lift 'sloppy' Guernsey

Guernsey 29, Effingham 14

A SECOND straight win for Guernsey further eases their relegation worries in the Powergen London Three South-West division. The two points were more important than the performance, which was just as well.

After an encouraging first-half display and two quick tries at the start of the second the 300 spectators in the Garenne Stand had every reason to expect a try-fest against the league's bottom side.

Sadly, it just did not materialise.

A sloppy last half-hour by Andy Bailey's men ultimately yielded two stoppage-time tries for the visitors, both converted.

Bailey, who continues to struggle through games with a persistent groin strain, did not know whether to laugh or cry about Guernsey's Christmas gifts to the visitors.

'It took the gloss off the performance a bit to be fair,' said the skipper.

'But they're a good side fighting for their lives,' he added.

Bailey momentarily considered the performance to be Guernsey's best of the season, but in the middle of saying so stepped back from what might have been a bad call after the green-and-whites' sensational win over Dorking the previous weekend.

'That's now three good performances in a row and, as you can see, we are enjoying our rugby.

'There is a lot of talent in this side.'

While talk of another Antipodean and possibly very hot acquisition was being banded about before kick-off, Guernsey seem to be slowly getting together as a unit.

The lineout remains poor though and, when Carl Gardner does not feature, the side lacks a good dead ball kicker.

For all Jordan Reynalds' excellent positional kicking from hand, the fly half is not the answer when it comes to penalties and conversions. On that front, the Aussie had a nightmare on Saturday.

Guernsey ran in five tries, only the first two were converted.

It took Guernsey 17 minutes to get their first, Jim Regnard bursting from the back of a scrum five metres out to pierce the Effingham defence.

Two more arrived in nearly nine minutes of stoppage time added on at the end of the first period.

A fine pitch-wide move across the three-quarters ended with winger Barrey Goude racing the final 50m and inside the fullback to score.

Then the skipper nipped in between the posts himself for a 19-0 half-time buffer.

Two more scores arrived in the opening 10 minutes of the second period, this after Billy Jones had nearly gone over right at the outset.

Regnard drove over from close range again and Bailey's alertness and tap penalty to himself set up Ben Le Huray to make it 29-0 with more than half an hour remaining.

Reynalds made a complete mess of both conversion attempts and Guernsey failed to score again.

In stoppage time Cameron Pattern dropped the ball on a rare break and John Grady raced away to score on the standside touchline and a handling gaffe on halfway allowed centre Mark Fricker to run onto his own kick ahead and score a second try for Effingham.

Fly half Ed Ralph kicked both conversions.