In their first competitive outing at Footes Lane since the Siam Cup triumph in May, Guernsey rose to the occasion with the backing of tremendous local support to beat Henley and make it three bonus-point wins out of three with a five-try performance that left Jordan Reynolds happy with the progress his side is making – while also giving special mention to the fans.
‘I have been here for a long time and normally for September games the crowds are probably at their lowest because people are coming back from their holidays and getting back into a routine, then normally things increase in October, but that crowd on the weekend was one of the biggest we’ve had for a long time – that could have been an April crowd. It was awesome to get the win for them,’ he said.
‘It was probably a slight step up from our first two games, which is what we thought beforehand, but across the park it was one of our better displays.
‘It was very stop-start, a lot of whistle in hand and a lot of penalties between both sides, but I thought we were really strong defensively apart from two lapses and our attack was towards where we want it.’
It was a closely-fought first half with Raiders twice taking the lead, firstly through a penalty try and later thanks to Joel Broadhurst touching down with Gwyn Parks adding the extras, but the Hawks responded each time with a converted try of their own.
However, Guernsey pulled away in the second half with Parks knocking over an early penalty before Tom Ceillam, Ethan Smith and Anthony Armstrong all went over with Parks adding a couple of conversions and a late penalty to finish things off with Henley’s only score of the half coming towards the end.
‘Everyone is putting their hand up,’ said Reynolds.
‘Iwan Shenton and Joel Broadhurst had good games. They have only been with us a short while, but they are becoming more influential.
‘Matt Creber, again, had a good game too and Gwyn Parks’ showed ability to organise us quickly. It’s just being able to understand what pictures look like in front of you and talking out there – and people are listening.
‘Henley were going through a bit of rebuild last season, they threw a lot at us at the weekend, they have beaten London Welsh – they are not a bad side. You can put the result down to the fact that we were arguably at our best for the games we have played so far.
‘I don’t know how they will fare as the season goes on – this league seems to be a little crazy with everyone able to beat everyone.’
Second-placed Raiders remain one of three clubs, along with league leaders Oundle and Old Albanians, to have accumulated the maximum 15 points so far, but Reynolds is not about to let his team get ahead of themselves and he acknowledged that there should be plenty more to come considering they have not had a full squad to choose from as of yet.
‘We have talked in the past and at training about developing 5-10% every week, trying to get that into training and on the pitch, and we are starting to see that,’ he said.
‘It is a work in progress, there are combinations that we have to try and work on, but we have got guys coming back from injury and they may start a little slower than where the rest are, but having three wins under our belt is pretty pleasing.
‘We did not have people like Dom Rice in the first week, Josh Poullet missed the next week, so little tweaks have been happening, but the good thing is while those things would have probably unsettled us last season, so far they have not impeded us this season. We have found different ways to compete.
‘We looked like we are putting it together at the weekend, which is great, but we have so many quality players who have not stepped foot on the pitch yet – Callum Roberts, Tom Teasdale, Michael Cantle, Fynn Smail and Dale Rutledge to name a few – but where we have gone through a pretty rough patch where we have had up to 13 players sidelined, we have still had three wins.
‘As we get these guys back, it will build a lot of competition for places and that drive within the squad is going to keep enhancing our performances.
‘We have to get better every week. Now we have got to go away to Colchester, who turned over London Welsh at London Welsh, which is no mean feat, so we have got to find that extra 10% this week.’
