Raiders end long wait for a win on the road

However, the 49-34 victory at Oxford Harlequins, which saw Guernsey climbed to eighth in National Two East, came at a cost as both Callum Roberts and Jack Colbourne were added to an already lengthy injury list, with back-to-back fixtures against top-three sides just around the corner.

‘That’s our first win away since the Old Albanians game back in October, so we’re pleased about that and really happy to get the win,’ said Guernsey director of rugby Jordan Reynolds, who then answered whether his side had come through unscathed with an emphatic ‘absolutely not’.

‘We lost Jack Colbourne in the first 15-20 minutes and it looks like he might have chipped a bone in his foot. We will have to see what the doctors say, but we are hoping we might get him back before the end of the season.

‘We had already lost Callum Roberts in the warm-up as he tweaked his quad, so we had to make changes to our team five minutes before kick off.’

Blake Boyland came into the starting XV in place of Roberts, initially at 15, but there was a reshuffle in the back line during the first half with the other Boyland brother, Sam, shifting to the fullback role.

As they tried to come to terms with their enforced changes, the first half was something of a mixed bag for Raiders as they scored the opening try through Ciaran McGann, but then conceded three tries to their hosts.

McGann scored again and there were tries for Blake Boyland and Ethan Smith as Guernsey edged 28-22 ahead by the interval with both sides having already secured a bonus point.

But Guernsey put the game to bed in the third quarter as Niall McGann, Anthony Armstrong and Tom Ceillam all went over for converted tries to establish a 27-point lead, before Harlequins narrowed the eventual deficit with a couple of late tries of their own.

‘Defensively we have probably not been that sound over the last couple of weeks, but attack-wise we are finding ways to score tries,’ said Reynolds of what he described as a ‘scrappy’ performance.

‘Our missed-tackle count was probably fairly high, but both teams seemed to forget about defence and looked to throw the ball around.

‘A fair few of our tries came fairly easily, but we still had to execute our attack well and one thing that has been improving of late has been our attack. With the pitches getting harder, it does tend to suit us more.’

The Raiders head coach praised the current form of Ceillam and Armstrong, while also picking out a prop for a special mention.

‘Martinas Dromantas at tight-head was excellent for us on Saturday. In both general play and the set-piece he was really good,’ Reynolds said.