Second-half rally fails to deliver at St Peter

Saturday 27 February 2016

Jersey RFC will be kicking themselves this weekend for not getting something out of their home encounter with London Welsh.

The Reds lost 14-21 on their own turf despite dominating the second half and playing with a man advantage in the final ten minutes.

Jersey had a disappointing first half, playing towards the Rue des Landes end and fighting a stiff and bitterly cold easterly wind. Second row Alex Woolford found a hole in the Jersey defence to go over in the eighth minute and flanker Jesse Liston went over in the 37th minute. Both tries were converted by Ollie Barclay.

The home side's only consolation was the last kick of the half - a penalty converted by Brendan Cope to make the half-time score 3-14.

Jersey came flying out of the blocks in the second half, with the wind and slope finally in their favour. A Cope penalty after strong pressure made it 6-14 and then Nick Haining went over after a drive from a corner line-out. Another penalty slotted over by Cope in the 65th minute brought the scores level at 14-14.

By then, Jersey really had the momentum, especially when London Welsh's Ben Cooper was sin-binned for persistent infringement in the scrum. 

But Jersey's hopes were dashed when a London Welsh counter-attack led to full-back Seb Jewell going over in the dying seconds. Jersey will rue their poor performance in the first half and their discipline in the line-out. They will be able to take some comfort from their second-half rally and dominance in the scrum. 

But they cannot escape the fact that they should have won this encounter.