Golden chance gone

Cobham 12, Guernsey 8

ANDY BAILEY felt it was a golden opportunity missed on Saturday as Guernsey's winning run ended. The Sarnians knew that they had their work cut out to add to their seven consecutive wins at unbeaten league leaders Cobham, but their captain yesterday admitted, 'we should have won it'.

'I think we made the mistake of giving them too much respect,' Bailey said.

'We usually go for the jugular from the off - that's our instinct - but we were a bit more conservative and it was to our detriment.

'They were not as good as I thought they were going to be. A couple of other teams have given us as hard a game this season - they are certainly not streets ahead of everyone else.

'That said, it was a very good game between two good sides.'

A 15th-minute Nick Barton penalty gave Guernsey a 3-0 half-time lead, but crucially just before the break the green-and-whites lost Laurence Hill-Tout and Layton Batiste shortly afterwards to the sin bin.

'We were down to 13 and because of the extra work we had to put in, it took a lot of wind out of our sails.'

Bailey felt Hill-Tout was unfortunate to have been shown a yellow card for a rucking offence, while Batiste sat out 10 minutes for an act of petulance - kicking the ball away after a penalty had been awarded to Cobham.

'I spoke to Layton afterwards and he was gutted by what he had done, but he is only a young lad and as long as he learns from it, it will only serve to make him a better player.'

It was just seconds before Batiste returned to the action that Cobham took the lead with a try and things quickly got worse for the visitors.

'They were given a penalty try for us collapsing a maul. It was a long way from the line and I felt it was a harsh decision,' Bailey said.

The Guernsey captain made it an interesting last few minutes as he went over for a try, but his side could not penetrate the Cobham defence again.

'It hurts. It is very disappointing, especially when you feel you are good enough to have won.

'The important thing now is that this one loss does not turn into two next weekend when we have got a big game against London Irish Amateur.

'We have got to concentrate on playing our own rugby and win our games. Second in this league would still be a great achievement for us,' said Bailey, whose side have now slipped back into third.