Pride shows as Jersey win at last

Jersey Reds ..49 Cardiff Blues ..12

JERSEY shrugged off injury worries and a fivematch losing streak to cruise to a convincing win over their visitors from Wales.

Head coach Harvey Biljon was proud of the effort put in by a squad that included assistant coach Alex Rae, out of retirement to play in the back row, and second team front-rowers Chris Pople and David Felton on the bench.

“I told people not to write us off, and the pride and enthusiasm of the players showed real character,” Biljon said.

A powerful surge by George Eastwell and a more jinking but equally effective run by Nick Haining brought two tries for the hosts in the first quarter. The Blues lost dangerous fly-half Ben Jones to injury, but were able to respond with tries by Owen Lane and Rhun Williams.

Rae’s long pass put

TEAMS

JERSEY: Katz; Cuthbert (Hardy 32), King, Eastwell (Fisilau 67), Davies; Cope, Dudley; Woolmore (Thomas 54), Macfarlane (Felton 72), Armstrong (Pople 66), Voss, McKern, Rae, Freeman (c) (Argyle 50), Haining (Kolo’ofa’i 50)

BLUES: Williams R; Lane, Summerhill, Williams D (Lewis 42), Webber; Jones (Hall 18), Hale (Lucas 74); Thyer (Howe 60), Belcher (Tomlinson 60), Assirratti (Leung 53), Murphy, Dolan (c), Lewis-Hughes, Crocker, Sheekey (Barnes 60) REFEREE: Ben Blain ATTENDANCE: 1,551 Star man Alex Rae – Jersey prop Jake Armstrong in on the left wing just before half-time and the Reds turned the screw after the restart, with tries for Eastwell – his second – and Sam Katz to stretch their lead to 23 points.

Jersey finished with three scrum-halves on the field, one of whom, Kieran Hardy, crossed for a brace of tries to complete the scoring. Brendan Cope maintained a perfect record, slotting seven conversions from all angles.