The final course at St Peter … is crumble

Sunday 24 April 2016

Jersey RFC's best season in the Championship ended in an error-prone thrashing in front of a large and expectant home crowd on Saturday.

A 0-34 defeat to Yorkshire Carnegie - against whom the Reds had narrowly lost to in their B&I Cup semi-final last month - and a BP win for London Welsh meant that Jersey dropped a place to sixth in the table on the final day of the season.

Jersey looked tired and spiritless as a promotion-hungry Yorkshire ran in six tries past the Reds, who suffered their heaviest defeat of the season and their first duck in the Championship.

There were flashes of hope from the home side - including some brave defending - but the on-fire White Roses repelled every attack and then exploited Jersey's frequent errors. The home side also lost key players, including captain Alex Rae after he dislocated his thumb and scrum-half Sami Fisilau, who was red-carded for an off-the-ball incident. 

At the final whistle, the 2,613 crowd filtered out quietly - no doubt happy with Jersey's mid-table security but perhaps missing the end-of-season dramas that were part and parcel of Jersey's first few seasons in the Championship.

Afterwards, Jersey's director of rugby Harvey Biljon said that his side "clearly had nothing left in the tank" but they should be proud of a strong season in the second tier of English rugby.

His longstanding players - those who have been at the club for at least three seasons - will now face Guernsey in the Siam Cup on Saturday 7 May.

Elsewhere, Moseley will be playing in National One next season, Richmond look likely to be promoted to the Championship while London Irish are almost certainly dropping from the Premiership. Bristol, Bedford, Yorkshire and Doncaster will duke it out to join Wasps et al. at the top table.