Guernsey show promise in battling performance

Guernsey 10, Jersey 22

GUERNSEY could take a lot of pride in their performance but Jersey proved that bit stronger in Sunday's inter-insular. In a passionate affair at Foote's Lane, the visitors never relinquished the lead once they had taken it but neither did Guernsey lose touch until the dying moments when victory was sealed.

Perhaps more significantly, there were also a couple of promising individual displays from young Sarnians that bode very well for the future.

The most eye-catching was that of Robin Le Cocq, who shone at openside flanker by simply doing the basics well and so often being first to the breakdown.

Even when he was forced to sit out the final few minutes in the sin bin, it was through a professional killing-the-ball offence committed for the good of the team.

'Robin will be a star for this island in future,' said Guernsey assistant coach Jon Arch.

'I thought the whole back row of him, Matt Henney and Tom Chamberlain worked so well as a unit in their first-ever game together.'

Le Cocq's sin-binning was one of five during the game, with the majority being for similar offences in an encounter that had one brief fracas but was generally well managed.

The home side started brightly and enjoyed much of the possession early on with scrum half Carl Gardner regularly presented with good, quick ball at rucks, but they were hit by a sucker punch after seven minutes.

Guernsey were building a strong attack but fullback Aaron Le Massurier, through no fault of his own, could not get his hands on a wayward pass and within a flash, Jersey had gathered the loose ball and Richie Stevens raced 70 yards to score.

Will O'Brien added the conversion.

With that, the momentum shifted and Jersey were the dominant force for the next 10 minutes, with their forwards doing some sterling work.

It was no surprise when they doubled their advantage on 18min.

The pack executed a fine catch and drive from the Guernsey 22 out on the left and when the ball finally came out to the backs, O'Brien timed his pop pass to perfection as Stevens joined the line at pace and the fullback raced to the posts unopposed for another converted try.

The Guernsey response was impressive and they soon halved the deficit as their player of the match, Divon Crouse, came in off his wing to act in his more usual role of scrum half at a ruck, spotted a gap and darted through it before beating the last man for a cracking individual score. Gardner added the extras.

Soon after the turnaround, Gardner reduced the arrears by three with Jersey guilty of killing the ball after Alec Bailey's fine break, but a four-point deficit was as close as Guernsey were to get to their opponents.

The next 25 minutes were scoreless as Jersey coped well with two more sin bins and O'Brien then struck a peach of a penalty from just inside the Guernsey half following Le Cocq's yellow-card incident.

With the clock running down, the visitors made sure of the win as they made a great job of spoiling a Guernsey lineout 5m from the Sarnians' line and Ian Burrell forced his way over.

After the game, Arch was delighted with his team's performance and picked out a couple more stars.

'Alec Bailey showed why he is pushing for a Guernsey first-team place and Divon Crouse is just quality - he is like a whippet,' he said.