Scottish suffocate Reds to complete the double

A SUPERB display by London Scottish, underpinned by a huge defensive effort, saw the Exiles complete a league double over Jersey Reds.

The Reds suffered their first league defeat on home turf in almost a year, and the result was one to treasure for Scottish director of rugby Dave Morris.

“It was an outstanding performance and a great achievement to get the double over a strong side,” Morris said.

“The defensive work was fantastic and there was real belief from the whole group that we could go out and get the result we wanted.”

Although Reds won the game’s first scrum with a massive shove, the second scrum resulted in a free kick under the home side’s posts, and when Grayson Hart took a quick tap, Tom Fowlie was able to find Matt Eliet to charge over the line. Rory Jennings added five points from the resulting conversion and a closerange penalty.

The home side began to string together some phases, but these attacks invariably ended with a handling error, while the Exiles were being more clinical with their opportunities.

An overthrown lineout was seized by Billy Harding and the hooker raced to the line for his side’s second try.

Looking to trim the 17point deficit after the restart, the Reds gained an attacking platform from a penalty, only to again lose their lineout, and within two minutes had fallen further behind thanks to some excellent Scottish handling.

Jennings made the break from halfway and found Jonny Harris, before Lewis Wynne and Charlie Ingall

took the ball on and Eliet crossed the try-line.

With a stiff wind at their back and some impact from the bench, the Reds had most of the territory and possession in the second half but with little success against a blue defensive wall.

Replacement Jack Macfarlane finished a rolling maul to get the home side on the board, but the Reds couldn’t add to their tally until it was too late.

Ollie Dawe saw yellow as the Scots conceded one penalty too many at the death, and Mark Best crossed for a Jersey consolation in the last play.

Jersey director of rugby Harvey Biljon was bitterly disappointed to see his team go down to their third consecutive defeat.

“There were several areas of our game that just didn’t function – lineout, execution out of hand, core skills, unforced errors – and we’ll urgently need to address those,” he said.