Raiders make it four wins from four

Saturday’s 41-23 win over Canterbury – another previously unbeaten side – made it four wins from four, all with bonus points, and Guernsey sit proudly in the top two of National Two East at the end of the month, trailing Tonbridge Juddians only by points difference ahead of paying the league leaders a visit this coming weekend.

‘We are at maximum points at the moment, which is great, and we have got a really tough game coming up but we are really excited about the opportunity to test TJs,’ said Guernsey director of rugby Jordan Reynolds.

‘We have TJs, then Barnes at home, a trip to Old Albanian and then Bury St Edmunds to come in October, which is quite a big block of games for us, but this next block is not really daunting, it’s exciting for us just getting in against these sides and seeing where we are.’

Raiders are certainly carrying momentum into the second month of the campaign, with the latest victory built on a period of around an hour against Canterbury when Reynolds felt his side played their best rugby of the season so far.

They did have to come from behind to register the win, though.

‘The first 10 minutes were not so great – they kicked an early penalty and then we had an early defensive blip from which they scored a try to go 8-0 ahead – but I would not say it was slow start, I still felt we were there or thereabouts,’ he said.

‘After that, we took a strong hold over Canterbury, scored two really good tries in the first half and then came out of the blocks in the second and scored three really quick tries.’

Ciaran McGann kicked a penalty to get Raiders on the scoreboard and he then touched down for the first of their tries with Anthony Armstrong adding the second, with McGann kicking both conversions.

Garry Jones scored the second of his three tries for the visitors right on half-time to narrow the deficit to four points at the interval, but then Guernsey blitzed Canterbury with three tries in the first 14 minutes of the second half, with flanker Liam Welch scoring two of them and winger Ethan Smith the other.

On the hour mark, Jones completed his hat-trick for Canterbury and Frank Reynolds added the conversion before slotting over a penalty a few minutes later, but Guernsey were comfortable and Callum Roberts put the icing on the cake with their sixth try late on.

‘To score six tries to three against a really good Canterbury side was very pleasing,’ said Reynolds.

‘The first couple were really good work from our backline and I had actually said to Jonesy [assistant Luke Jones] during the warm-up that it looked like a different backline to Havant a week earlier – we were so much sharper.

‘When we came out after half-time, our pack went to work and made inroads with our drivers, scored those three tries and it was then a big scoreline for Canterbury to come back from.’

The head coach joked that Welch came in for the unavailable Dom Rice and ‘stole a couple of his tries’, but added on a serious note that it emphasised the added strength in depth of the Guernsey squad this season.

‘Since pre-season I have been saying that we have 24-25 players and when you put any of these guys in, there is no drop off in performance,’ Reynolds said.

‘We have found in the league games that when we have made changes, the performances have still been there and that’s with everyone at the moment.

'It shows where we are mentally and physically as a squad.

'Canterbury were pretty good and clearly they are a better side than they were last season, they have got some new guys in, have more quality in their squad and you can see why they had done well in their first three games, but we are in a different gear and we are constantly finding different ways to adapt in games.

‘It is really coming off the back of how strong we have been defensively. Speaking to some of the Canterbury guys afterwards and they said how difficult it was to find gains and space against us.’