GUERNSEY Touch have won their first international trophy. At last weekend’s Greenstone Hook tournament in Paris, the Guernsey mixed side won their group, beating Scotland into second place by just five tries.

The Sarnian squad, which is sponsored by Ernst & Young, came second overall in the whole tournament, which saw teams from Scotland, Belgium, France, Wales, Germany and Switzerland compete.

‘It was a fantastic weekend and all three of our teams played incredibly well against some very experienced teams.

‘To bring home the mixed trophy and to come second overall shows just how much we have improved and how established touch has become in the island,’ said Guernsey Touch spokesman Andrew Hutton.

‘The experience of those players who had played for Guernsey last year combined with the enthusiasm and energy of the new players produced some great performances and I think some of the opposition were quite surprised to see just how well we play.’

The mixed team played eight games over the two days against four other countries.

On Saturday they beat Belgium 7-1 with four tries coming from Aaron Le Masurier and one each from Hutton, Nick Guy and Ariane Turner.

The game against France ended with a 3-2 win with two more tries from Le Masurier and one from Rory Jones, who at 16 was one of the youngest members of the squad.

Another seven tries were scored against Switzerland thanks to the dynamic combination of Le Masurier and Jones, who scored them, with Switzerland managing to score only twice.

Guernsey’s only defeat of the day was against Scotland with the match ending 4-2 with tries from Jones and Laura Cravo.

On Sunday the late arrival of players from Belgium saw Guernsey lose 5-1 with Le Masurier the only name on the scoreboard.

The second game against France again ended with only one try between the teams and the six tries for Guernsey came from Turner, Hannah Lord, Andy May, Tom Godfrey and two more for Jones.

Having lost to Scotland the day before the team were determined to step up the pace and the game ended 2-2 with tries from Steph Nicolle and Le Masurier.

The team ended their day on a high with a 9-0 win over Switzerland with Turner, May, Cravo, Jones, Nicolle and Michelle Boddy each scoring one and Le Masurier scoring three.

The men’s team benefited from having a core of players who had been in the team last year and finished third overall with 14 points behind France on 18 and Wales 30s on 16

They started the weekend with three straight wins, which began 4-2 over Germany thanks to tries from Andrew Campbell, Tom Falla and captain Dan Taylor-Edwards.

France 35s were beaten 6-0 with Jason Batiste and Cameron Patten each scoring twice and Dave Strawbridge and Campbell adding another two and this game was followed with a 3-0 win over Wales 35 with tries from Batiste, Olly Reed and Brendan Madey.

The final game was a 9-5 defeat against the eventual winners France with Taylor-Edwards scoring three and Madey and Campbell scoring one apiece.

On Sunday the men had just two games, winning 2-1 against Switzerland and losing 5-3 against Wales 30. Barney Lee and Madey scoring two each and Campbell scoring one.

Only three countries entered teams in the women’s competition and so Guernsey played Germany and France three times over the two days and despite this being the first tournament for all but three of the team, the inexperience rarely showed.

On Saturday they started with a 3-3 draw against France with tries coming from captain Paula Townsend, Debbie Wilson and Clio Phelan and followed this with a 3-2 defeat against the eventual winners Germany, with tries from Wilson and Townsend.

The last game of the day and the second against France ended in a 3-0 defeat.

The second game against Germany was their biggest defeat, ending 4-0.

In their last game against France, the Guernsey women were unlucky not to win, with the French scoring in the last minute to draw 3-3, with tries from Wilson, Sonia Hewitt and Alex Hanna. The final game against the Germans ended in a 2-0 defeat.

Guernsey also played an integral part in the refereeing over the weekend with Guido Bohlmann being the island’s full time referee and seven of the players also taking on such duties.

‘As well as developing our players, Guernsey Touch has also concentrated on encouraging players to take their referee qualifications and the number of players refs that we were able to provide shows the success of this,’ said Hutton.

‘The team has come back from Paris with much more confidence and we are more determined than ever to win the inter-insulars on 11 August.’