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IT WILL all come down to the biggest 80 minutes in the Guernsey Rugby Club history.
Raiders may have missed out on the London & South-East Premier title, with Barnes having clinched the championship with their 52-7 win away at Sutton & Epsom on Saturday, but Guernsey’s own 54-10 victory over Towcestrians at Footes Lane guaranteed them their highest ever league finish and a shot at promotion next Saturday when South West Premier runners-up Bournemouth come to the island.
Raiders chairman Charles McHugh has already declared free entry for spectators to the play-off in order to get as large a crowd as possible to fill the Garenne Stand and cheer their side to the next level in English rugby – National Two. Kick off will be at 2pm.
Guernsey coach Jordan Reynolds felt his side were still suffering from the hangover of the defeat away to Tring, which saw Raiders usurped at the top of the table having led the way for so long, in their performance against the bottom side at the weekend and it was patchy, but they still ran in eight tries with Anthony Armstrong claiming a hat-trick.
‘It’s one of those things that we are really proud [of the highest ever league position], but at the same time you just want to finish it off,’ said the Raiders coach.
‘I’ve got faith in the boys that they will step up to the mark next week.
‘But let’s be honest, all we needed to do was get a win today and we did that so we can move on to next week.
‘It was still 54-10, we got the points we wanted and there was still some good stuff. In the last 20 I think we started to play some really good rugby, which was really good to see.
‘Most of the time in the first half, the handling errors were every time we had an overlap, we passed it and it went to touch.
‘If we didn’t do that, you’re talking maybe 60 points in the first half – there were about seven tries we didn’t get – so we could be having a completely different conversation, but it’s just the way it is.’
He added that Doug Horrocks, Dan Hill, Malcolm Barnes and Luke Jones are all in contention to play against Bournemouth.
Full match report in Monday's Guernsey Press.
