Guernsey Press

Batiste comes to the rescue

THERE is life in Raiders yet.

Published
The moment of glory: Layton Batiste stretches out to score in the 85th minute. (Picture by Martin Gray, 23660764)

In an extraordinary finish to a great game at Footes Lane on Saturday with the hosts trailing by six points with time up, Guernsey camped themselves on the Barnes line and continually knocked on the door until forcing it open with Layton Batiste the man shoved over the line.

It still required Owen Thomas to kick the conversion, but the fly-half made no mistake from just to the left of the posts and Raiders, along with their fantastic support in the Garenne Stand, could celebrate a 22-21 National Two South victory.

‘A lot of people will be saying why didn’t you score it out wide, but what’s the point because you’ve still got to kick the conversion,’ said Raiders coach Jordan Reynolds.

‘We had a plan with what we wanted to do in that last part in keeping it tight and credit to the forwards, but you’ve also got to give credit to Barnes with the way they defended that. We would have scored that in five phases normally, but that took us something like 30 phases to get over, so you’ve got to give credit to both sides.

‘Barnes will be disappointed, but they are still pretty comfortable [in the table]. For us, it gives us a little bit more hope, which is good.

‘We have gone 12 straight losses, this would have been 13, and that’s hard to bear – for the players and for me trying to get the boys up every week, it’s just a lucky thing we are really good mates because otherwise it would be really difficult.’

  • Match report in Monday's Guernsey Press.