Raiders’ power takes them third

With kicker-centre Ciaran McGann producing 19 points off his own back, Jordan Reynolds’ men overcame some tricky moments in the south-east corner of Hampshire and ‘blew them off the park in the final 10 minutes’ to win 39-20 and climb to third in the early National Two East table, level on points with the two Kent clubs, Canterbury and Tonbridge Juddians.

On a day when roadworks saw Raiders come off their Gatwick flight and spend two unwanted hours on the coach, the Guernsey side largely had their pack to thank for the win after a slow start.

‘The game was tight in the sense that it was down to the things we were doing wrong.

'We were a little disappointed with the way we played,’ said coach Jordan Reynolds, feeling that they were bailed out by his pack, his men having trailed midway through the second period.

'Hats off to the front row. Our scrum and maul game was excellent, but we made some poor decisions which we will have to address over the next few days.

‘But that said, there were also parts of our game which was really encouraging and we found a way to win and win well.’

For the third week running Raiders secured a try bonus point, three of their five scores arriving late on as out-powered Havant found themselves down to 13. The only blot on Raiders’ day was an injury to winger Anthony Armstrong who did not come out for the second half.

Jack Colbourne, his replacement, scored a try and in addition to a penalty try, also going over the line were McGann, Callum Roberts and Carter Hackett.

‘We picked up a couple of knocks but we don’t know the extent of them at the moment,’ Reynolds added.

‘I thought that Josh Poullet really stepped up for us and made a huge difference.

'If we hadn’t had the scrum dominance we’d have been in trouble.’