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Injuries take gloss off fantastic weekend

Injuries take gloss off fantastic weekend

Alexandra Wallace24 Feb 2016 - 12:27
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ALL Guernsey RFC members will be sending their best wishes to Justeen Baker, who is in the Jersey General Hospital after breaking an ankle in the 22-7

ALL Guernsey RFC members will be sending their best wishes to Justeen Baker, who is in the Jersey General Hospital after breaking an ankle in the 22-7 win for our Ladies over the old enemy on Sunday.

And while not so serious, let’s send best wishes to acting 1st XV Raiders skipper Lewis Hillier, who damaged ribs in the fantastic win at Westcombe Park and will be out for some time.

And, if that was not enough...Luke Sayer damaged a shoulder in the same physically punishing match which has left Raiders glad they have a fortnight off.

Now to the Ladies and that great win over Jersey in the National Challenge South East South One game at St Peter. Coach Chris Griffiths was obviously saddened by the injury to his star centre, but generally satisfied, ‘It speaks volumes of the high standards we expect of ourselves these days that even when we are getting the wins we are not fully happy unless the performance is right up there with the best and ideally we are getting the 5 try bonus point. And so it was on Sunday that despite a pretty convincing win against a determined Jersey side in miserable conditions and away from home the team as a whole were not cheering and patting themselves on the back for a job well done come the final whistle.'

‘I believe this may be because we missed out on at least three more clear cut tries that would have secured the bonus point and then some.
‘Firstly Tanya Scholtz was cruelly denied a fantastic solo effort for the second week in a row by as blatant a high tackle as you are likely to witness close to the line that really should have subsequently been awarded as a penalty try and a yellow card at least, but instead a knock on and scrum was awarded to the opposition.

‘Then a very good team try was disallowed for a highly questionable decision when the final pass was deemed to have been forward. Finally with five minutes to go we managed to butcher a clear chance to score with an overlap in the right hand corner that would have given us the fifth try.’

To compound this Jersey then scored a try that Griffiths believes could have been prevented with the final play of the game.
‘This was probably no more than they deserved for their efforts but they had not troubled our 22 for the entire 70 minutes so it was another frustrating soft try to give away right at the end.

‘We spoke before the game about exerting pressure on them in defence and attack for the full 70 minutes which but for that last moment had been working brilliantly.’

But other than that, all went well aside of the Baker injury.
‘Of course I am very pleased with the win and the players fought hard in what was a very physical game and I am proud of how they played and but for a few key decisions would have ended up with a very convincing final scoreline.

‘Captain Kristine had an immense game and really led her troops from the front ably backed up by a fine performance from Jemma Crouse at 9 who scored two great poachers tries and Carly Parrott also finished off two great team tries and was only denied a hat-trick by the forward pass decision.’

But Justeen’s injury was to prove a big blow, 'She has been our defensive captain for the past three or four games and has led the line superbly as well as being an ever present attacking force, she was really in great form. It looks likely that the broken ankle she suffered in an unlucky tackle situation will mean she will be sidelined for the next five months or so and of course we wish her all the best with her recovery and she will have all the support possible from her teammates and the club and we hope she will be back in time for pre-season training for our next league campaign.’

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