Raiders stung by Bees after failing to convert chances

The Guernsey coach felt his side were ‘all over’ their hosts Birmingham & Solihull Bees in the opening stages and deserved their early lead, but failure to capitalise on a whole host of other opportunities cost them dearly as the match progressed.

‘Our catch-and-drive was all over them – they did not know how to defend it,’ Reynolds said.

‘But when we got down into their 22, we just constantly missed our line-outs. Whether it was through all the enforced changes and people not knowing the calls, I don’t know, but they were missing their cues and if we had hit those line-outs, we would have been on top of them.

‘As it is, when you miss seven or eight of those chances, you start dropping in intensity and, lo and behold, they start coming back into the game and start scoring points.’

Having fallen behind to an early penalty, Raiders then forged their way into the lead.

Daley Aremu finished off the first try of the game after Guernsey worked through several phases then pushed the ball out wide before Exeter Chiefs loanee prop Patrick Schickerling powered his way through a couple of tacklers to touch down and make it 10-3.

By half-time, though, the Bees were 20-10 ahead thanks to tries from Harry O’Brien, Matt Dight and Matt Spink.

After the turnaround, Bees were reduced to 14 when Matt Probert was shown a yellow card, but Raiders again failed to capitalise despite creating opportunities.

The home side then pulled clear as Dight completed a hat-trick and Zane Raimondi finished off the scoring.

• More in Tuesday's Guernsey Press.