Greens warm up for biggest test in style

Guernsey 27, Winchester 5

A WEEK off obviously did Jordan Reynalds the world of good. Guernsey's Australian fly half was excellent as he returned to the ranks after his injury lay-off and played a pivotal role as the home side extended their winning run to seven matches.

Winchester arrived at Foote's Lane on the back of a fine win over London Irish Amateur and as a potential banana skin for Andy Bailey's men, but the green-and-whites never looked in danger of losing this one.

'Winchester played well. It was hard out there and they put their hits in, but our defence was strong,' said the Guernsey captain.

'We put together a clinical performance. We did what was required and stepped it up when necessary to take the opportunities when they arose.

'We showed a lot of composure,' Bailey added.

In contrast to many home games in the recent past, Guernsey absolutely flew out of the blocks with a stunning try within the opening 30 seconds.

Dylan Chatterton was on hand to put the ball down, but the try was all about the two JRs.

Straight from the kick-off, James Regnard made a strong run to halfway before executing a brilliant offload to Nick Barton, who immediately spun it on to Reynalds.

He ghosted through the Winchester defensive line and sprinted away, giving the ball out to his supporting Kiwi centre only a couple of metres from the line when a covering defender finally appeared. Barton converted the try.

However, that proved to be something of a false dawn as nine minutes later, after a lengthy period of pressure, Stuart Moreton burrowed his way to the line in the left-hand corner to bring Winchester to within a couple of points.

The next quarter-of-an-hour was patchy with little in the way of quality and both sides lost a player for 10 minutes as George Daniels was shown yellow for a high tackle on Reynalds before Regnard was also binned. The latter's card appeared to be for too many team offences rather than anything particularly cynical on his part.

But with half-time beckoned, Guernsey upped the ante.

A successful Barton penalty after Winchester hands in a ruck was soon followed by another marvellous try.

This time it was Ben Le Huray who put in the hard yards down the left wing and when the ball was worked back infield, a neat sidestep by Reynalds put him through a gap on the 22 and he cantered to the posts. Barton added the extras to make the half-time score 17-5.

Less than three minutes into the second period, Guernsey crossed the line for the third time.

From the kick-off, the pack had made good yards using a rolling maul before it was dragged down by Winchester.

With the resultant penalty, Reynalds found touch on the 22 and, following the usual Laurence Hill-Tout to Peter Miers line-out, another maul took the forwards to within a couple of yards of the line.

A simple pick-and-go saw Layton Batiste get over the whitewash.

'Layton had probably his best game for us. He is a powerful lad and it was a big game for him because he got into his number three shirt for the first time and didn't need his super-size one,' Bailey joked.

The hosts were comfortable for the remainder of the half and capped off the victory in the 78th minute with their fourth try.

It was the skipper who swapped wings to finish off a move in the left-hand corner following a big miss-pass from Reynalds, a strong Regnard run and quick hands from Chatterton.

'There is plenty to come from us. There is so much skill and power in this team,' Bailey said, before praising his returning general.

So now for the biggest test of the season.