Guernsey Press

Guernsey topple the league leaders

THE match lived up to its billing as the in-form Guernsey Raiders Ladies knocked the league leaders off their perch at Footes Lane on Saturday evening.

Published
Guernsey Raiders Ladies fly-half Justeen Baker bursts through to score the winning try. (Picture by Martin Gray, 26454829)

The hosts emerged victorious 15-10 in an exciting see-saw battle to make it three wins on the bounce and inflict only the second defeat of the season on Streatham-Croydon Ladies.

‘An excellent all-round team performance with the rookies showing the benefit of their increasing experience and the established players exerting their influence in both attack and defence,’ was GRL coach Steve Evans’ assessment of his side, who have really gathered momentum in recent weeks.

They took the lead thanks to a Tanya Scholtz try, which was awarded after a long discussion between the referee and his assistant.

Despite Guernsey dominating the set-piece in the first half, Streatham-Croydon scored against the run of play to level the score at 5-5 before half-time.

In the second half, Guernsey got their noses in front once more after the visitors gave away a penalty in front of the posts and kicker Aimee Le Bachelet made no mistake to give her side a three-point lead.

Some changes to the pack gave GRL a better platform and they were able to exert more pressure, driving Streatham-Croydon backwards in the scrum and stealing three line-outs.

Despite sustained pressure in the Streatham 22, Guernsey were unable to capitalise and were held up over the line.

An uncharacteristically poor scrum then allowed the visitors to break out, clear their lines and they took full advantage to score out wide and edge ahead 8-10.

However, Guernsey were soon on the attack again and continued pressure allowed No. 10 Justeen Baker to slice through a gap in the defence and score under the posts. Le Bachelet added the conversion to make it 15-10 with quarter-of-an-hour to go.

Streatham-Croydon went in search of a response, but despite a succession of penalties in the Guernsey half, they could not cross the tryline again and there was an audible sigh of relief when they infringed at the tackle with 82 minutes on the clock.

Vicki Rang took the tap penalty before kicking the ball into the stand to seal victory.

Home wins for both Havant and London Irish at the weekend saw them leapfrog Streatham-Croydon while Guernsey are fifth in the eight-team league on 15 points after seven matches.