Raiders insist more to come as they target top six finish
GUERNSEY’S return to National 2 South has seen them surprise many teams – but they are still waiting to “find their rhythm”.
The Raiders were promoted by finishing second in London & South East Premier division before Covid. They had already tasted National 2 South -bitterly, relegated in their 2018/19 debut season.
It has been different this time, though, with Guernsey winning seven consecutive games in nine before losing to Redruth. But Jordan Reynolds, director of rugby on the island for 15 years, believes his side have not yet hit their potential.
He told TRP: “For us, we don’t feel we’ve found our rhythm. I feel like we tend to sit in on games, watch what the opposition do and then start to peel them back, finding ways to win.
“One thing I think we do have an abundance of is really strong resilience to keep on fighting right up to the death.
“We’ve got to be making sure that we’re playing the Raiders’ way. I don’t think we’ve been able to do that yet.”
Success has been a key word in Reynolds’ career at Guernsey, winning four promotions in his tenure. And, despite their brief history in the fourth tier, the islanders’ squad hold a unified ambition for their campaign.
“We felt we wanted to be up around that top six,” Reynolds added. “From
our club point of view, trying to seek promotion is not what we’re really about.
“We knew we were coming back into this league and last year was about making improvements.
“As we worked hard in the summer with the boys, by the time we got into setting goals, everyone felt that top-six was probably a big mountain to climb but not something impossible.
“We’ve put ourselves in a really good position to hopefully achieve that at the end of the season.”
Guernsey have been involved in some thrillers, winning three of their nine games by three points or less.
Reynolds says it is part of National League rugby’s allure, continuing: “You’ve got teams supposedly bottom of the league playing against top of the league and beating them.
“There isn’t a huge amount in it. One team can be slightly off and another team can be more on. Hinckley against Henley at the weekend – who predicted that result? It’s just a fantastic league for us.”