Jersey RFC season will go to the wire

Tuesday 22 April 2014

In an agonising Saturday afternoon for Reds' supporters, Jersey ultimately got nothing for their endeavours - so their survival hangs in the balance with one game to go.

All focus is now on next week and the trip to Bedford for the last game of the season, with the reds languishing at the bottom of the Greene King IPA Championship.

In an evenly contested first half on Saturday, it was Jersey who were first on the score sheet with a Penberthy penalty. London Scottish fought back, and with a dominant scrum laid siege to the Jersey try line. Following a number of resets, the referee had had enough and awarded the visitors a Penalty try that was easily converted to take the lead 3-7.

Jersey were next on the score sheet when Griffiths scored under the posts. Jersey had a lineout on the Scottish 22 and moved the ball from left to right and back again before McCrea was caught about two yards short, but still had the strength to off-load to Griffiths who did the rest; Penberthy converted and it was 10-7.

From the resulting restart McCrea caught the ball but was then penalised for crossing and Millar converted to level the scores and that's how it was at the break.

With all to play for in the second half, Scottish came out the stronger and added two more tries of their own before Jersey hit back with one to reduce the deficit. With the game evenly poised at 17-22, Jersey fans started to believe that it could be their day, but then Scottish converted a penalty from just inside their own half to extend their lead to 17-25, and that was how it ended.

Penberthy did have a shot at goal just before the final whistle to reduce the deficit, but the kick into the wind that would have ultimately given the home side a losing BP was off-target.