Guernsey Raiders 35 (Tries: Steventon, Welch 3, Creber)
Old Albanians 42 (Tries: Morrow, Radovanovic, McPhun, Skelcey, Charter, Munnelly)
Raiders had just gone toe-to-toe with the National Two East leaders and come away with a couple of bonus points from a narrow defeat in a see-saw contest, so there were definitely positives to take.
And yet this was also undoubtedly a missed opportunity.
Even director of rugby Jordan Reynolds could not quite figure out his own emotions afterwards.
Asked whether he was pleased with the start to the new year, his immediate answer was a pretty emphatic ‘no’, but as he continued by dissecting what he had just seen, his mood was relatively upbeat.
‘The good thing is we’re really disappointed with not getting that win, but you’ve got to look at it and say, we still got two points out of that,’ he said.
‘It’s the only second loss that we’ve had this season where we’ve actually got a bonus point, so that’s always going to help. And it showed good courage from the boys at the end there to stick at it and find that extra try.’
The mixed emotions reflected the nature of the game as a clash of two vastly contrasting styles dished up really topsy-turvy fair.
Old Albanians are not your archetypal level-four league leaders, who you would expect to have the imposing hallmarks of a professional outfit with all bases covered across the park – powerful pack, orchestrating half-backs and efficient three-quarters in a structured system.
Instead, they have pace, gusto and the understandable confidence of a side who have now won a dozen of 15 games this season to sit top of the pile.
OAs thrive off broken field play and pose a danger with their willingness to run at any opportunity.
When Reynolds summed their style up as ‘loose’ in previewing the game, he was not kidding.
It was their ability to capitalise on a line-break in a flash by having players streaming through to support the runner and giving each ball-carrier options that saw them take an early lead through fleet-footed winger Ben Morrow in the seventh minute. Raiders seemed to have OAs well accounted for and pinned inside their own half, but once they stepped out of a tackle on the outside, with a few seconds the visitors were under the posts.
A forward pass saved Raiders from conceding again moments later, but once they got possession themselves, the home side made it count with two tries in four minutes midway through the half.
A clever grubber kick to the corner from Charlie Simmonds heaped pressure on the OAs line-out and it did not cope as a free-kick 5m out came Guernsey’s way and within two phases Sam Steventon had piled over the line with help from his friends.
The returning John Dawe, who was outstanding in midfield for Raiders, then created the second try with a fine run and Anthony Armstrong kept the attack going with a low pick-up off his boot laces before shipping the ball onto Liam Welch to score.
But there was to be another major momentum shift before half-time.
OAs showed they had another weapon in a rolling maul that made plenty of yardage before the backs went to work in shifting the ball out to the wing where an impressive offload out of the tackle gave Archie Radovanovic a try.
Straight from the restart, Ethan Smith misjudged his timing and took the catcher out in the air, which led to an undisputed yellow card and while Raiders were down a man, they conceded two more tries, one either side of half-time.
Scrum-half Elliot McPhun gave them a 21-14 lead at the break with a neat bit of opportunism from close to the sticks and within the opening 90 seconds of the second half Joshua Skelcey came off his wing to take the ball at pace, jink through a tackle and score the bonus-point fourth try.
When OAs added a fifth on 57min. in trademark fashion with support runners scything through Raiders before Harry Charter touched down in the right-hand corner, Raiders had a mountain to climb despite OAs being down to 14 at that point with Andrew Nurse in the sin-bin.
But the green-and-whites came again, helped by the options they had coming off the bench with wholesale front-row changes, in particular, giving them impetus.
As the game entered the last 20 minutes, Welch peeled off a strong driving maul to dive over for his second try and he completed a hat-trick on his 50th Guernsey appearance six minutes later from close range at the culmination of an attack that stemmed back to Joe Wrafter winning a penalty at scrum time.
But OAs showed they were capable of impressive game management over the next few minutes as they worked through the phases to help run down the clock before Elliot Munnelly powered over from close range.
As he got up to celebrate, Munnelly also chucked the ball straight at the prone Tom Teasdale, which sparked a big melee beyond the try line.
Once things had subsided, it was Teasdale who was yellow-carded, showing that the officials had seen his last-ditch attempt at a tackle to be illegal, but the Guernsey bench made it clear that they felt Munnelly should have been punished, too, for his reaction.
Although he stayed on the pitch, OAs were to finish with just 13 men as both McPhun and Alex Noot were sin-binned with time in the red as penalty after penalty came in the red zone while Raiders pushed for the seven-pointer that would give them a losing bonus point.
Eventually it came in the 88th minute as the pressure finally told on the OAs defence when Matt Creber capped a strong individual performance with a deserved try, which was importantly converted by Ciaran McGann with the last kick of the game.
TEAMS
Guernsey Raiders: Steventon, Cantle, Dromantas, Hillier, Webb, Welch, Rice, Creber, Rutledge, Simmonds, Smith, Dawe, M Armstrong, A Armstrong, Teasdale.
Replacements: Ceillam, Currie, Wrafter, C McGann, Boyland.
Old Albanians: Holland, Fleckney, Samuel, Horne, Charter, Radovanovic, Ponsford, Florestein, McPhun, Lound, Skelcey, Westcombe-Evans, Jones, Morrow, Noot.
Replacements: Alexander, Ramzanpour, Stirling, Munnelly, Nurse.
