Clinical Guernsey make most of elementary error

Guernsey 30, Effingham and Leatherhead 0

GUERNSEY showed no signs on Saturday of any over-indulgence during the Christmas break. The hosts did not look in danger of conceding a point, let alone losing their unbeaten home record as Effingham and Leatherhead were comfortably seen off at Foote's Lane.

Andy Bailey described the wet and windy conditions as hard work, but there was plenty for him to be happy about at the final whistle.

'We were quite clinical,' said the Guernsey captain.

'I cannot recall too many bad decisions out there. We are very critical of ourselves after every game and there are certainly areas to work on, but it was great to get our wheels going again after Christmas.'

Arguably the worst decision of the day came when the captains met for the toss and the visitors chose to play into the wind for the first half.

It left Bailey a happy man.

'I remember being told years ago that you should take the conditions when they are on offer.'

Within three minutes of the start, Guernsey had taken full advantage with the opening try.

After Effingham and Leatherhead had been penalised, Jordan Reynalds drilled the ball into the corner and Laurence Hill-Tout found Peter Miers from the line-out.

The green-and-white pack pushed towards the line, a ruck formed and Simon Sharrott picked up and dived, making the line right under the referee's nose.

Nick Barton missed the conversion from a difficult angle, but he found his range seven minutes later, slotting over a penalty from 35m out with the visitors guilty of not releasing the ball.

With Guernsey continuing to press, their Kiwi flanker added another three-pointer on 18min. to extend the lead to 11-0 after a Guernsey maul was collapsed by the opposition.

Having so far played it pretty tightly as dictated by the conditions, the home side's next score came thanks to a piece of three-quarter magic.

Cameron Patten, who played at fullback due to the welcome return of Jim Elliott in the centre, came into the line on a crash ball and took Reynalds' pop pass at pace.

After breaking through one tackle, the Australian stepped out of a couple of others on a strong run that took him from halfway to within sight of the try line before he offloaded and let the supporting Barton take the glory in the corner.

Seven minutes before the interval, the Sarnians added their third try. Initially it came from a wayward pass that was too far in front of Reynalds for him to get a hand on.

Elliott recovered and hoisted a high kick towards the right-hand side where the visiting wing and fullback collided as they attempted to catch it.

Bailey was on hand to hack ahead and after he had booted the ball downfield a couple of times, he dived on it once it had crossed the line for a fine individual score, which Barton converted.

Turning around 23-0 down, Effingham & Leatherhead had little chance of getting back into the game.

They did enjoy more possession and territory in the second half, but a disciplined defensive performance from the hosts kept them firmly at bay.

To rub salt into the wound, Guernsey added a further try on 80min.

Young substitute Robin Le Cocq, who looks every inch a natural openside flanker, was heavily involved as he gobbled up a loose ball as the Effingham & Leatherhead three-quarters tried to chuck it around following a Reynalds clearance.

Le Cocq popped it up to Barry Goude and he offloaded to Dylan Chatterton who cruised to the line.

The outstanding Barton added the extras to complete the scoring.

'It was awesome to keep a clean sheet - the defence looked good throughout,' Bailey said.

'The tone was set early on. Two mistakes by them right at the start - putting the ball out on the full and then giving away a penalty - saw us score in the opening couple of minutes and we never looked back.'