Guernsey went into the clash with a chance of overhauling Dorking at the top of the Women’s NC Two South East (South) table, but finished the campaign just a point short of the eventual champions.
Scarlets completed the top three on the same 53-point tally as GRL with all of the title contenders ending up with 10 wins and two defeats from their 12 games.
On a warm day and a firm pitch on the south coast of England, the hosts opened the scoring when they took advantage of a turnover to spread the ball wide where the move was finished off for an unconverted try.
They extended their advantage to 12 points with a converted try 20 minutes later.
After that tough start that left them playing catch-up, GRL got on the board thanks to Kristi Murphy, who capitalised on a fumble to dive over and reduce the arrears.
Just before the interval, Guernsey broke into the Seaford 22 and Daisy Travers delivered a well-timed pop pass to Yvie Coyde, who powered through the final defender to touch down, making it 12-10 to the hosts at half-time.
Seaford came out strong at the start of the second half and although the GRL defence held firm for a while, eventually Scarlets broke through to add a converted try to their total.
With the momentum, they then increased their lead further to 24-10.
Raiders responded with renewed intensity and Aideen Le Prevost powered through to claim what looked like her first try, but it was not awarded by the referee.
Le Prevost came close to making up for the disallowed try, driving hard but brought down just five metres short of the line.
Quick to react, though, Travers caught Seaford off guard with a clever pick-and-go, darting through to score a brilliant try under the posts with Ness Brown successfully taking the conversion.
With just one minute left on the clock, the Guernsey team threw everything they had into a final push and got to within 5m of the try line.
But in a heartbreaking turn, Seaford stole the ball at the ruck and kicked it into touch, denying Guernsey a last-try and sealing their own victory.
Despite the disappointment of the result, GRL were able to look back on the season as a whole with a lot of pride, and celebrated their growth and progress having registered just a single win in the previous campaign.
Captain Kayleigh Oliver also brought up a milestone as she made her 50th GRL appearance.
Megija Krasovska was named forward of the match while Lauren Ogier took the backs accolade.
The team will now begin preparations for the upcoming Ladies’ Siam clash.
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