Raiders get back to winning ways

But while Quins put up a gallant performance on a day when they lost two starters before half-time through injury, they came off second best as Raiders showed the reigning Regional One Midlands champions just how clinical sides at step four can be, even when not in top gear.

It was a far from vintage Guernsey performance, not helped by them being on the wrong side of the referee for much of the game, with the penalty count being hugely in Oxford’s favour, but importantly they got back to winning ways and picked up the bonus point, too, thanks to a seven-try display in the 49-27 success.

The positives were in the set-piece, which functioned much better than it had done a week earlier in the defeat at Henley, there were some strong performances from the backline, particularly John Dawe in midfield and two-try Anthony Armstrong, who was irresistible at times.

It did take a while for Raiders to get going, though, with the first 12 minutes or so scrappy until Harlequins took a three-point lead through a straightforward penalty for Ewan Fox.

Falling behind spurred the home side into action and in the next quarter of an hour they took full control of the scoreboard.

Co-captain Lewis Hillier turned down the chance to level things up when Guernsey were awarded a penalty in front of the posts just outside of the 22 and his decision was vindicated when Charlie Simmonds found a superb touch 5m out and the resultant catch-and-drive ended in familiar fashion with Tom Ceillam touching down once the maul reached the line.

The pack then turned their focus to the scrum and a huge shove against the head had Oxford on the retreat, putting pressure on scrum-half Harry Burn to go digging for the ball.

Once he appeared with it, his opposite number Sam Boyland pinched it from him as Burn tried to offload and the Guernsey nine scampered away to score.

Raiders continued to turn up the heat on Quins, who were having trouble clearing their lines, and once the home side won back possession inside the opposition’s 22, Armstrong left three would-be tacklers trailing in his wake before drawing the final defender and shipping the pass to Liam Welch who dived beneath the posts.

Oxford lost Fox and Joseph Pigott to knocks shortly after that third try, but they did score next as Archie Van Dijk’s initial break caused a bit of chaos in the Guernsey defence before Alex Hayton set up Sam Moorby to slide over in the left-hand corner.

However, Raiders were quickly back in the ascendancy and on the stroke of half-time they bagged the four-try bonus.

The move was instigated by an outrageous cross-field kick-pass from Ciaran McGann to Ethan Smith, who beat a couple of men before being halted just short of the line and a couple of phases later Josh Poullet burrowed his way over.

McGann’s fourth successful conversion of a perfect afternoon from the tee made it 28-8 at the interval.

Two tries in the space of three minutes early in the second half then put the result beyond doubt and Armstrong scored both.

The first came from good hands along the backline before Simmonds provided the final pass and the second was the result of a brilliant interchange between Dawe and McGann in midfield to split open the Oxford defence.

By that stage, Raiders were on a team warning for cumulative penalties and on 57min. Martinas Dromantas was sent to the sin-bin as the next offender.

While they had the extra man, Oxford worked an overlap which fullback Edward Yeates exploited to score.

Raiders were only briefly back to a full complement before Jack Colbourne was shown a yellow card for obstruction and again Quins took advantage of their numerical advantage for Burn to touch down after a strong run from Willo Bicknell.

Guernsey hit back to score their final try through Owen Thomas, who played a nice one-two with Sam Boyland, but then, with the final play of the game, the hosts gifted Quins a bonus point when Thomas chipped the ball to Simmonds in their own in-goal area and the latter failed to gather it, allowing Van Dijk to dive on it.