Divon Crouse shrugs off an attempted tackle. The South African came into the Guernsey starting XV at the last minute for the injured Barry Goude. (0547993)
Guernsey 6, Jersey 3
A WIN is a win no matter how it is come by.
Guernsey have at times played some scintillating rugby this season, but no one could accuse them of doing so on Saturday. This was roll your sleeves up and grind out a result stuff – a real war of attrition with defence ruling the day.
Old Reigatian, who are a far better side than their league position suggests, can feel aggrieved at having been defeated, yet the hosts did not deserve to lose either as both sides cancelled each other out. They could have kept on playing long into the night and still no try would have been scored.
Without Jordan Reynalds, Guernsey’s backline failed to fire, with the passing off target and nowhere near as sharp as we have come to expect.
In fairness, though, they seldom received quick ball, with it taking an age to come out of the many rucks that were formed.
Bearing that in mind, Guernsey captain Andy Bailey was fairly satisfied.
‘[The slow ball] was probably testament to their tactics, but we do have to work on getting quicker ball,’ he said.
‘Our discipline pleased me today, though. We have done a lot of work on it during the week and it was much better.’
With the wind at their backs, the visitors had much the better of the opening quarter-of-an-hour, although Andre Botha failed to convert possession into points when his attempt at a long-range penalty fell short of the sticks.
A lethargic Guernsey suddenly sprang into life thanks to Blair Campbell’s break from his own 22, but with two covering defenders remaining and support on either side, he chose to go right to Nick Barton when perhaps the better option was the pace of Cameron Patten to his left.
Generally, OR were not making the most of the wind and when they did kick long they found winger Ben Le Huray in fine form under the high ball and he remained error-free throughout.
But they eventually broke the deadlock on 29min. when, during a rare excursion into the green-and-whites’ 22, Guernsey were penalised in a ruck and Botha made no mistake with his second penalty attempt.
Vitally, though, the hosts levelled the score in first-half injury time through Barton’s boot and to turn around 3-3 was a major bonus.
However, with the home crowd hoping their side would pull away, OR made things extremely difficult for Guernsey and the craft of fly half James Espin, who always impresses at Foote’s Lane, meant that the visitors were always capable of a breakaway.
The closest the hosts came to scoring was through Divon Crouse, a last-minute replacement for Barry Goude who had suffered a recurrence of a knee injury in the warm-up.
The South African live wire took a quick tap penalty and caught OR napping – as well as his own side – but was brought down by Mirvin Manus’s excellent covering tackle.
Unfortunately for the visitors, they lost their fullback, Manus, to injury on 59min. and that blunted their attacking options somewhat. You need to be a decent player to wear the bright-red boots he had donned and he certainly was that.
The decisive score came with eight minutes remaining as Barton drilled a penalty home from 35m after a mess of a scrum.
‘The game started at 100mph but the wind was deceptively strong and both sides struggled to play the wind with their kicking game,’ Bailey said.
‘In the last two weeks we have shown a lot of composure in tight situations and that is pleasing.
‘OR’s side have improved a lot since we last played them. They have got a few new faces and it was, in the end, a good win for us.’
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