Saturday’s inaugural event at Footes Lane was the perfect combination of high-class entertaining rugby and terrific party atmosphere to make it a night to remember. As a spectacle and for just sheer vibe, this will be hard to top.
Seldom, if ever, have Guernsey and Jersey players stood on a pitch together at the end of a match united in such pleasure, both at winning their first-ever ‘international’ as a combined side and also the exhilarating rugby they were able to produce to win 66-28 in a fast, furious and at times ferocious clash in the best way possible.
Sweden played their full part, too, as with ball in hand they were menacing, pacy and hard to handle, but they could not cope with the CI’s set-piece as the home forwards laid the platform from which their backs flourished.
None-more-so than Guernsey wing Anthony Armstrong, who scored a hat-trick of tries and was named man of the match.
‘That’s such a great day, I just absolutely loved every second of that,’ he said with a beaming smile afterwards.
‘I mean, we had one training session and we produced that standard of rugby – it makes me excited to see what else we can do with a bit more training moving into next year.
‘It was great fun. Really good fun.’
Guernsey flanker Dom Rice had the honour of scoring the first-ever try for the CI in an international encounter, with his fellow Raider Charlie Simmonds touching down twice in the first half, as well as Armstrong, while Ethan Smith got in on the act with the last play of the half.
By that time, Sweden had shown their threat from open play with centre Axel Kalling-Smith also scoring twice while wing David Hill got one before the interval, too, as the CI led 40-21 at half-time.
The home side pulled away after the turnaround.
Tom Ceillam was a popular scorer of the CI’s seventh try before Samuel Ekfeldt replied for the visitors with their only score of the second half. Then Jersey’s Scott Van Breda topped off an excellent individual showing with an intercept try.
Armstrong completed his hat-trick with an unstoppable run from close range and Euan Spencer got try No 10 late on.
Classy fly-half Aaron Penberthy kicked eight of his nine conversions attempts before leaving the last effort to the retiring Lewis Hillier.
The co-captain missed by a mile, but he still had the satisfaction of lifting the trophy alongside Evan Whitson moments later.
‘To play outside those Jersey boys, it was just the absolute dream,’ said Armstrong.
‘At training last week, I was like, “how wide do you want me to stand?” And they said, “wherever you want, we’ll find you”. I said, “okay, this is the standard we’re playing”, and it showed out there. I got a few nice easy walk ins, which I’ll always take.
‘It was just great, the pack up front absolutely dominated the set piece, which was fantastic to see, and that just gave us the platform to really enjoy our rugby.’
He added that the atmosphere was ‘very different to Siam, but absolutely fantastic’.
‘The buzz all day has just been great – it’s just been like festival. It’s been really good fun.’
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