Forwards lay the foundation

SKIPPER Andy Bailey was full of praise for the team following their biggest away win in London South-West Three, a 42-6 triumph at Old Wimbledonians. 'Our forwards again set the platform for the result with another dominant display and the backs followed it up with a clinical performance,' said Bailey.

'We spoke after the game that we feel we have moved up a gear as a team.'

With the sun on their backs an early Nick Barton penalty settled the Guernsey nerves andfrom that moment on Guernsey's forwards dominated their OW counterparts. Following a sustained period of pressure in the home side's 22, a driving maul allowed Simon Sharrott to go over for the first try, Barton converting for a 10-0 lead.

Old Wimbledonians briefly fought back and earned two penalties which were duly converted, but they would prove to be their only scores.

Following another period of Guernsey pressure, Jim Regnard went over direct from a five-metre scrum, which again went unconverted, but the Guernsey pack continued to dominate the forward exchanges and their driving mauls sucked the energy out of the home forwards.

Following a string of penalties, Old Wimbled-onian were reduced to 14 men, their openside flanker being sin-binned.

Shortly after Guernsey attacked from an OW clearance kick which didn't find touch. Miller fielded the ball on the left and it was put through the hands across to the right hand side where Chatterton put Bailey away to score in the right corner. Barton missed the wide conversion but made amends on the stroke of half time with a penalty giving Guern-sey a 23-6 lead at the break.

OW's came out after halftime determined to make a better showing and enjoyed their best period of the game.

They retained possession and spent the best part of 10 minutes camped in Guernsey's half.

But the visiting defence was resolute and despite their possession OW never really created a clear scoring opportunity.

Guernsey then dominated proceedings and following a sustained Guernsey attack, OW's repeatedly collapsed at a five-metre scrum on their own line.

The referee was left with no choice other than to award a penalty try which Barton converted.

Guernsey soon scored again.

Attacking from deep Chatterton again put Bailey through a gap with a neat offload out of a tackle. The Guernsey captain duly side-stepped inside the last defender to score. Barton missed the conversion. Chatterton blotted his copybook with a yellow card for infringing at the breakdown, but this did not put the Guernsey team off as they launched attack after attack on the OW try line.

The final score came with Guernsey retaining possession with a serious of offloads out of tackles and with a ruck formed right on the OW try line, Barton barged his way over to score and then convertted his own try.