The Guernsey director of rugby refused to use the enforced changes, which saw a patched-up side travel to London Welsh, as an excuse for their performance as they conceded six tries in a lacklustre defeat on the road.
‘It definitely was not great circumstances for us, but to me it is acceptable to lose if you are still performing well, but we just did not have that performance,’ Reynolds said.
‘It probably sits with myself as I do not feel as if I prepped the team well enough last week. I feel like I might have got too comfortable winning and not spotting some issues that need fixing.
‘For example, our breakdown work is poor at the moment and while we won against Bury St Edmunds, that was down to our scramble defence more than anything, so like I said, I might have got a little bit too comfortable and I did not help our coaching staff and players enough in their preparations.
‘My job is to motivate the group and get them ready. Obviously, I did not do that well enough last week.’
Raiders named a starting XV with six personnel changes and another three positional alterations to the side who had beaten BSE the week before, with totally new second row and centre pairings, and they fell behind to a converted Dylan Jones try within the first six minutes.
The visitors hit back through a Anthony Armstrong try after quarter of an hour, but by half-time they had a mountain to climb as they conceded three converted tries in the space of 11 minutes while reduced to
14 men due to Joe Wrafter being in the sin bin.
That gave Welsh a 28-5 lead at the interval and both sides then scored two tries apiece after the turnaround, with Ethan Smith touching down for Raiders, who were also awarded a penalty try late on.
‘We got a yellow card that ended up being around 14-15 minutes – we could not get our player back on the pitch – and during that period they ended up scoring three converted tries, so that’s 21 points. But [the yellow card] was not the decisive moment in the game. We made things pretty hard for ourselves regardless of that,’ said Reynolds.
‘Even if you take those three tries out of the equation, performance-wise it would be difficult to say that was the reason we lost because in reality we did not look like we were going to win that game from the start.
‘We were just flat – we did not win any of the physical battles in the game, we lost a lot of the collisions.
‘Our performance was probably on a par with where we were against Old Albanians earlier in the season, we just did not look like a Guernsey side out there.
‘It would be difficult for me to say whether London Welsh were good because in all honesty we did not really challenge them a lot.’
One positive for Raiders was the strength of their scrum during the game, but even that has been tempered by the fact that they lost Wrafter, Tom Ceillam, Michael Cantle and Charlie Currie to injuries.
‘Obviously, we’re all pretty disappointed, but with a break coming up this week, we have got a bit of time to reflect and we will try to prepare our guys a bit better for the last block of games coming up before Christmas,’ said Reynolds, whose side return to action away to Canterbury on Saturday 6 December.
‘Whether or not we can get some players back over the next seven to 10 days, I’m not sure at the moment.
‘We currently have around 14 guys out, but we still have a squad that can give a good performance regardless of those missing.’
Guernsey Raiders team
Wrafter, Ceillam, Dromantas, Godet, Welch, Creber, Le Noury, Rice, Boyland, Simmonds, de Jersey, Teasdale, Smith, A Armstrong, M Armstrong. Replacements: Cantle, Currie, Steventon, Rutledge, N McGann.
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