With two of the assigned match officials for Saturday’s final Footes Lane outing of 2025 unable to travel to the island due to a flight cancellation, Guernsey’s director of rugby ended up acting as one of the touch judges with his opposite number from Barnes doing likewise in a bizarre National Two East encounter, which saw the referee take sole responsibility for officiating the game and then doing so for virtually the whole of the second half unable to run because of a calf injury.
In its own way, that added to the entertainment, but it ended up being a disappointing afternoon for Raiders and their fans as their efforts in a hard-fought contest went unrewarded, with a 29-21 defeat depriving them of any bonus points as they were held up over the line with the last play of the game.
‘It was a bit weird,’ said Reynolds of his day.
‘I don’t know how it came to it, but they [the referee and one assistant referee] weren’t there, so one of the ARs had to do the officiating, which I’ll say I thought he did a really good job considering.
‘But then when we got to it, it was deemed that the DORs had run touch to try and help with the occasion with the players, so I ended up getting roped into it.
‘It wasn’t how I was expecting to play out my Saturday, but what I would note is, when you’re running along the sideline, you’re by yourself, you can’t really get that emotional into the game... because every time I walked past the Guernsey bench, everyone seemed to be angry and I had a bit of a smile on my face.’
Full match report in Monday’s Guernsey Press
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