Cup semi-final beckons for Jersey Reds

Saturday 11 March 2017

A powerful display by Jersey Reds saw them cruise into the semi-finals of the British & Irish Cup for the second straight season.

In the first knock-out tie of a major rugby cup competition to be staged in the Channel Islands, the Reds were dominant through the first 70 minutes of the game, by which stage the visiting Cornish Pirates were well beaten.

The home team were able to celebrate a notable win against the team who won the B&I Cup in 2010 in front of a decent crowd of just over 1,500. There was relief that the game was able to take place at all, after fog that had affected flights in and out of the Island for 48 hours finally lifted soon after midday.

If the Pirates' selected flight from Exeter was a master-stroke of timing - it arrived bang on time at 4.30pm - so was the decision by the home side to have a Friday night tie just five days after the sides had met in Penzance for a league fixture. Jersey seemed the fresher side against a visiting squad badly affected by injury.

Although the visitors grabbed the league with an early penalty, the Reds soon exerted power through their forwards before working the ball wide for Nick Scott to score in the corner. Two Callum Sheedy penalties against another for Pirates made it 11-6 before the Reds pulled clear thanks to a penalty try caused by sustained pressure at the scrum.

One more Sheedy penalty made it 21-6 at the break and the game was over as a contest within seven minutes of the resumption when Jersey scrum-half Joel Dudley raced clear from a scrum to touch down.

The big lead enabled the home team to make some changes in personnel and it was one of the new faces, Sami Fisilau, who crossed for the fourth try within two minutes of replacing Dudley, later named man-of-the-match.

The visiting team had the last word with late tries by skipper Tom Duncan and Paul Andrew, but there was no question about who was on the way to a semi-final tie on the weekend of March 31- April 2, with the draw expected to be confirmed on Monday.

Before the semi-final, the Reds have back-to-back home games in the Greene King IPA Championship. Rotherham titans visit St Peter on Saturday March 18th before unbeaten league leaders London Irish come to the Island a week later.

JERSEY REDS: Cuthbert; Watkins, Davies, Ma'afu, Scott; Sheedy (Robling 55), Dudley (Fisilau 66); Woolmore (Tampin 69), Macfarlane (Selway 64), Kerrod (Armstrong 56), Phillips, Voss (Kolo'ofa'i 61), Freeman (c), Graham (Argyle 61), Haining.

CORNISH PIRATES: T May; O'Meara (Arnott 61), De Battista, Bartlett, Moyle; Cargill (L May 48), Day (Pope 48); Walker (Chapman 61), Innard, J Andrew (P Andrew 29), Parker, Beukeboom, Cheesman (Paver 69), Stevens (Lee h-t), Duncan (c).

REFEREE: Jack Makepeace. ATTENDANCE: 1,515

Half Time: 21-6

Man-of-the-match: Joel Dudley (Jersey Reds)

Scorers

Jersey Reds

Tries: Scott 11, Penalty Try 28, Dudley 47, Fisilau 68

Conversions: Sheedy 38, Robling 68

Penalties: Sheedy 8, 24, 28, Robling 60

Cornish Pirates

Tries: Duncan 71, P Andrew 78

Conversions: L May 71, 78

Penalties: Cargill 3, 18