Raiders do it for Dom as they finally beat BSE

The jubilation of scoring a late try to snatch a dramatic 36-35 victory was tempered by the knowledge that co-captain Dom Rice was in hospital at that point, having departed the ground in an ambulance with a serious leg injury during the first half, which caused the game to be halted for more than 20 minutes.

‘That was a bit of a shock to us, the whole group, and it’s tough to come out after that one because we rely on Dom hugely, especially as one of our leaders and captains,’ said Guernsey director of rugby Jordan Reynolds.

‘From what I saw, it looks like a dislocated ankle and they’re never great. We’ll try and find out tonight, but really, really feel for him.

‘We’ve been plagued by injuries – we’re really struggling there, and we’re probably at the maximum of our injury list now. It’s good that we’ve got a break coming up.’

Raiders go into their first bye weekend with seven bonus-point wins from their first eight games to remain hot on the heels of the only side to have beaten them, National Two East leaders Tonbridge Juddians, so they have earned the week off their head coach has granted them following a victory over BSE secured by Liam Welsh’s 78th minute try.

‘I just said to them “I think we all need some time away from each other”,’ said Reynolds with a grin.

‘We’ve dropped three points against Tonbridge, the rest of the time we’ve hit maximum points right throughout and it’s really pleasing.

‘We’ve said this constantly, but last year we lose these games. We lost seven games by less than three points and we’re just finding a way to come back and ignite.

‘I found today that the one thing that was good, although we were low on fuel and low on energy, any time we needed a spark, we got it. As soon as something forced us to react, we reacted. That kind of shows that there’s still a bit of life in this team, which is great.’

• Match report in Monday's Guernsey Press.