Injury-hit Raiders ‘so close yet so far’ to an away win

However, with the margins in National Two East being particularly fine, Guernsey came away from Tonbridge Juddians with nothing to show for their gallant efforts after a late penalty try for the home side a 20-10 win.

‘I know I sound like a broken record at the moment, but it is a case of so close yet so far,’ said Raiders director of rugby Jordan Reynolds.

‘We had 14 guys unavailable for the match , we have got a pretty heavy injury list at the moment, and we took away both Ethan Smith and Luke Sayer who already had groin strains, but with all that adversity against a TJs side pretty much at full strength barring one player, we gave a really good account of ourselves.

‘Defensively we were really good, we showed a lot of heart, which is great, and attack-wise when we had the ball we looked threatening.

‘Either team could have won the game and we are a little bit frustrated, but we also understand where we are with so many players unavailable, so to still stick it to one of the better teams in the league the way we did was a positive.’

The visitors started well and managed several forays into the home side’s 22 only for ball retention to let them down.

The match remained scoreless until midway through the half when TJs took the lead with a successful penalty kick on a day when Raiders were let down by their discipline, although Reynolds described some of the decisions from the officials as ‘strange ones’.

Guernsey responded by taking the lead through the first try of the game with Smith going in at the corner after the ball was spun out to him on the left wing.

Further first-half penalties proved costly for Raiders, though, as one allowed TJs to kick to

the corner and execute a catch-and-drive try to retake the lead and then the visitors were reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes when Jordan Smiler was sent to the sin bin.

The hosts made the most of their man advantage to extend their advantage to 13-5 at half-time.

Guernsey enjoyed a second-half purple patch as they threatened the try line time and again until, eventually, Tom Ceillam touched down to score from a driving maul to bring his side back within three points.

Raiders then pushed for another and came agonisingly close through Tom Teasdale, but the ball was lost forward with the line beckoning.

TJs, who had also fell foul of the referee and had spells down to 14 themselves, finally managed to clear the lines and turn defence into attack late on.

They built momentum in the final couple of minutes and in the dying seconds another catch-and-drive was halted illegally by Raiders and the penalty try was awarded.

‘Ultimately, the biggest factor for us was the penalty count – it was far too high,’ said Reynolds

‘Against TJs you want to keep the game at a high tempo to move their big forward around the park and when we did that we had them in trouble. If we could have eradicated the penalties, it would have helped us continue to do it for longer.

‘But we did have a few opportunities. Unfortunately we missed a couple of line-outs and we also dropped the ball over the line right under the posts, which would have put us 17-13 ahead with just a few minutes to go.

‘It was always going to be tough to keep TJs out, but if we had taken that opportunity, I think we would have been able to hold on.’

The coach added that the forward pack were ‘really good’ defensively with Dom Rice, Doug Horrocks and Smiler name-checked by Reynolds, who also had a word of praise for his No. 10.

‘Charlie Davies at fly-half had another strong game. He is starting to have a lot more belief in himself in that role.’

Raiders have a weekend off now before Westcliff visit Footes Lane on Saturday 15 October, by which time they hope to have some bodies back.