Beeches 22, St Jacques 23
ST JACQUES capped an excellent finish to their season by lifting the MacMillan Cup on Sunday.
The Sarnian outfit defended heroically in the closing stages against Beeches at St Peter to hang on to their one-point lead and claim the silverware.
St Jacques’ coach Chris Griffiths (pictured), trophy clutched firmly in his hand, said: ‘This has been a brilliant end to an up-and down season.
‘We’ve won, for the first time I think, three away matches in a row. So it’s been a great way to end our season.’
Beeches outscored St Jacques four tries to two and had another effort disallowed while captain Peter Stockley saw a drop-goal uncharacteristically go wide as he tried to edge his side in front.
However, he was philosophical in defeat afterwards.
‘We could have won – and having Iain (Burrell) sin-binned didn’t help – but overall St Jacques deserved to win,’ Stockley said.
‘In the last five minutes we forced a scrum close to their line, which they won and kicked clear. It was all too little, too late.’
Tries from flanker Ryan Barrett and scrum-half Tom Hutton in the first half gave Beeches the edge compared to two Alec Bailey penalties but a third Bailey penalty early in the second-half made it 10-9.
Following that, two converted tries by St Jacques – the first by winger Steve Davison and the second by centre Andrew Shaw as he bustled through three would-be tackles – gave the Guernseymen a 10-23 lead, but Beeches bounced back with tries by Dan Kychta and centre Owen Woolgar.
Stockley converted the last to make it 22-23 but the talk afterwards was of the try that wasn’t, when full-back Steve McKenna seemed to have touched down before it was disallowed for a foot being marginally over the line.
Still, Stockley paid tribute to a St Jacques’ team who, in the past, have been more used to losing games rather than winning them.
The MacMillan Cup now resides in Guernsey for the first time in four years.rugby
Article posted on 29th April, 2009 - 2.29pm
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