St Jacques hard done by as winners are flattered

St Jacques 7, Farnborough 24

IF EVER a scoreline was truly misleading, it was this one at KGV. Farnborough take their place in the next round of the Hampshire Plate, but Chris Griffiths's all-blacks deserve great credit for a stirring second-half performance which yielded just one pushover try, but there could have been more.

After a slow, nervous opening in which they gave the visitors, halfway in Hampshire League One, a head start, the home side played some enterprising and brave rugby urged on by their support in front of the clubhouse.

St Jacques were comfortably the better side in the second period but just could not put the points on the board needed to overcome a 14-0 half-time deficit.

When they lined up at the start, St Jacques had Alec Bailey at fly half, borrowed from Guernsey.

Alongside him, South African Arras Guthrie looked a very capable scrum half and the fact Divon Crouse was pushed into the centre to accommodate him seemed to underline the fact.

For 15 minutes, St Jacques could barely get out of their own 22, but the home side held the opposition at bay for 10 minutes, by which time they had lost lock John Coyde to the sin bin.

Carl Murray let the home side off the hook with a poor penalty attempt in front of the posts, but the tall St Jacques No. 4 was still off the pitch as visiting captain Ian Lidden went over in the corner and full-back Rob Martin converted superbly from the left touchline.

Finally, St Jacques went on the attack inspired by Bailey making a 30m break.

Moments later, the all-blacks thought they had scored in the corner themselves, but the referee ruled there had been a knock-on before Crouse had put in his countryman, Jan Pretorious.

The turning point came soon afterwards.

St Jacques, deep in the visitors' 22, were looking for an opening but as Bailey attempted to find Crouse with a pass possibly to let him in to score, Lidden intercepted and despite a quite obvious knock-on, picked up and tore 100 yards to score unchallenged under the posts. Murray converted and it was 14-0.

The home team finished the half much the stronger and the slippery left wing Julian Hurley very nearly went over and after half-time Griffiths's team continued to edge it.

But 15 minutes in, fullback Martin raced over down the right to make it 19-0 and the tie was as good as over.

Farnborough obviously thought so because they allowed themselves to be pushed back for the remainder of the game.

With 20 minutes left, St Jacques's almighty push for the line ended with a try for Tim Pond in front of the clubhouse.

John Bell kicked the conversion superbly to reduce the margin to 12 at 7-19, but within a minute, the home team had shot themselves in the foot, a simple dropped ball on their 22 allowing Murray to pick up and score unchallenged.

Soon after, Crouse, struggling with a sore hamstring, and Guthrie swapped positions and as the former Guernsey first-teamer revelled in the thick of things, he so nearly created a try for forward Matt Chammings.

In typically impish style, Crouse jinked into a gap which did not seem to exist and fed his teammate with a clever pass.

Chammings steamrollered over from 10 metres only to see his glory squashed by the referee who had spotted an infringement.