Raiders need to turn a corner after tough loss
Dispirited rather than dismayed. That was the emotion portrayed by Jordan Reynolds as he tried to explain how National Two East’s bottom side Colchester had inflicted a second successive home defeat on his Raiders on Saturday.
‘I’ve been involved in some tough losses here, but I think that one’s probably the worst one – well definitely for this group – and it kind of shows where we’ve come from at the start of the year to where we are now,’ said Guernsey’s director of rugby after the demoralising 38-36 loss.
Much of the damage was done inside the opening nine minutes as a plethora of dreadful missed tackles saw the home side fall 19 points behind to a Colchester side who were quicker in thought and deed.
Raiders tried to scale the mountain they had given themselves to climb and got to within a couple of points in the third quarter, but their Achilles heel returned with a vengeance as they were made to pay for more basic tackling errors as Colchester crossed the line three further times in the second half.
Even then, Guernsey had the chance to salvage at least a draw late on, but their execution deserted them when they needed it the most in the dying moments.
‘We just don’t know really how to fix what’s going on in the team. We were really flat today, really flat in the warm-up, we’re pretty poor during training this week,’ Reynolds said.
‘We did some good things, but when you’re 19 points down, it’s impossible to come back from that.
‘I said [to the team afterwards], “it’s tough as coaches because we have no control over it and it must be tough for you as players because you’re getting directives from the coaches and we’re unable to deliver them”, so I think it’s frustration on both parts.
‘But the main thing is we’re in this together and we’ve just got to find a way out of it.
‘At least, lucky for us, Siam’s not next week, so we can try and turn the corner eventually.
‘But I think that was our opportunity today. We should be beating that team and we’re just not doing it at the moment.’
St Jacques Vikings, meanwhile, claimed a crucial victory on the road on Saturday as they edged a Counties One Hampshire thriller 32-31 against Sandown & Shanklin in the Isle of Wight.
• Read the full Raiders match report in Monday’s Guernsey Press.
