ALL three island teams came back empty-handed after the third touch rugby inter-insular at the weekend. Having played well at the Green Stone Hook Tournament in Paris last month, the men’s, women’s and mixed teams were feeling confident that they could show Jersey just how much the local game had improved.

But it was not to be and all three lost to give the hosts the new team and the inter-insular trophies.

‘It was certainly disappointing and we had hoped for a better result but on the day it wasn’t to be,’ said Guernsey Touch spokesman Andrew Hutton.

‘It was obvious that our performance has improved as the standard was so much higher than last year.

‘Unfortunately, Jersey’s experience at the World Cup in South Africa in January gave them the edge.’

The mixed sides took to the field first with Guernsey starting the game.

Aaron Le Masurier immediately scored but his try was disallowed for a forward pass and when play was handed over to Jersey, they scored.

Jersey’s second try came from an interception which saw them cover most of the pitch, despite a fantastic diving attempt from Hutton to make the touch, and the score remained 2-0 for the remainder of the half.

Jersey kicked off the second period and took advantage of a defensive Guernsey error to make it 3-0.

The Sarnians then took possession and scored their only try of the game after Hutton beat his defender and passed the ball to Laura Cravo on the wing to score. Jersey went on to score twice more to make it 5-1.

In the men’s match, which Guernsey won last year, the team took an early 1-0 lead after Jason Batiste took advantage of the last ball in their possession and weaved through the Jersey defence.

However, the hosts then levelled and scored a second just before half-time.

In the second period, Jersey increased the pressure, scored four more tries and, with a solid defence, succeeded in keeping Guernsey away from the try line to end the game

6-1.

The last match of the day was the women’s and the visitors suffered at the hands of Jersey’s Chrissy Hefford who was responsible for setting up most of their tries thanks to her speed.

Guernsey’s only try came when captain Paula Townsend broke through the Jersey defence and passed to Gilly Kennedy-Smith on the wing to score. The final score was 5-1.

‘Despite not bringing the trophies home, we were pleased that the Jersey team could see an improvement on our performance from last year,’ said Hutton.

‘The 2007 season is now over and we already know that we are losing some valuable players who are leaving the island and so our challenge for next year will be to select our island teams early so that we can concentrate on playing as a team and hopefully 2008 will be Guernsey’s year.’