Griffiths now pins hopes on RFU league restructure

But, speaking after their hard fought 5-5 draw against Wimbledon at Footes Lane on Sunday, GLR coach Chris Griffiths is proud of the improvement his side have shown since the turn of the year.

‘Against all the odds, seventh-placed Teddington beat top-of-the-league Newbury, who were at home, 14-19, so even if we had got a try bonus win we would still have been clutching at straws to avoid the drop,’ he said.

‘The gifted four points for the walkover that Drybrook gave Teddington has really done it for us and we cannot now mathematically get off the bottom, but I know the coaches and the players will take so much from how we have played over the last four games and have proved that we can be truly competitive at this level.’

Griffiths felt his side gave ‘absolutely everything’ to get the win against Wimbledon and showed great character to come back from conceding the opening try in the second half to prevent defeat thanks to Ellie Whittles’ second try for the club.

‘The ladies played out of their skins and with real heart and courage, epitomised by Fiona Ashworth, who had to leave the pitch to pretty much get her ear sewn back on,’ Griffiths said.

‘We never gave up hope of the win, even when we went 5-0 down and hadn’t really enjoyed any great field position at the time.

‘The desire not to lose and to try and get the win at all costs was very evident for me, but things just didn’t quite click for us and to be fair Wimbledon defended very well.

‘Of course, it was very disappointing not to get the win, we came so close, but you could argue on reflection that we had done very well to earn the draw after so much pressure including three held-up tries from Wimbledon.

‘Gaining two points on the day was a great achievement in many respects, but of course it does not help us in regards to staying up.’

He added that he was extremely proud of the way his squad handled themselves against very physical and, at times, vociferous opponents.

‘At the start of the season I don’t think we would have handled the physicality as well as we did.

‘From a defensive point of view the girls were outstanding, except for the one occasion that led to their try, but they held them out at close quarters on more than one occasion, again a massive improvement in terms of the desire to defend their line since the start of the season.

‘In fact, in the eight games before Christmas we were shipping on average 52 points a game, in the four games since Christmas we have conceded on average just 18 – that is some turnaround defensively and in the last three games we have won one, drawn one and lost one fairly narrowly away against the league leaders, conceding just over 10 points a game on average, so I am really pleased with the improvements.

‘This is partly due to the home advantage, but also the more consistent line-up. I believe the players have genuinely been learning with every game and that is the massive benefit of playing at a high level.’

Griffiths revealed that although Guernsey are unable to catch any of the teams above them in the table, it is unclear which level they will be playing at next season.

‘Theoretically we should be relegated down a level, but you just never know what the RFU may do regarding structuring and other teams requesting to drop down, etc, so we will have to wait and see what happens from here in regards to where we will be playing next season,’ he said.

‘From our point of view as coaches and players we are focusing on what’s coming up and we still have two league games left and we will try to go out and win both, as we have done all season.

‘It would be great to end the season strongly, playing some really good rugby, especially with one eye on the Siam Cup on 5 May.’