Throughout a winter of discontent and long queues to the treatment table, the spirit has stood up well and this win in the first match of 2015 was the perfect way to start a vital four months for the club.

The coach has been enthusing about the potential of his backline for weeks and in this vital win we saw exactly what he meant.

Playing a wonderful brand of attacking rugby, our injury-hit team ran in three tries to defeat second-placed Chichester, a result which takes us to within a point of Tring who lost.

Had it not been for the points deduction we would be out of the relegation zone.

‘We won pretty comfortably today and let a lot of opportunities slip,’ said Jordan afterwards, pleased with the win but a tad disappointed it proved so close in the end.

The victory came on the back of a fantastic opening six minutes in in which Malcolm Barnes and Glen Walters dived over for tries.

Only one was converted and but for a couple of missed kicks the margin would have been more than 15-3 at the break.

Matt Hema then scored a converted try for a 22-3 early in the second half and thanks to Luke Sayer’s great try-saving tackle Chichester were restricted to just two scores of their own, the second which put the Garenne Stand crowd on the edge of their seats, three minutes from the end.

In fact, rather than sit on their lead, Guernsey went for the jugular and late on an attack was held up over the try line.

Barnes and Cameron Craine both had yellows and spells on the sidelines, but nothing was going to stop the ‘Green Machine’ today, a result which will lend weight to the suspicion we can climb well lear of the relegation spots.

After this result we are now just five points clear of 10th spot and the coach is confident that another one can be achieved away at Barnes this weekend, when both skipper Blair Campbell and the versatile Ned Brown are back and available.

‘The boys are probably more focused than ever,‘ said Jordan having had a couple of days to digest the performance and result.

‘We made 124 tackles all told and by the end we were running a little out of steam.

‘It was unfortunate that they scored those two tries.

‘In the end we made hard work of it. We made a lot of opportunities and probably left anything up to 25 points out there on the pitch.

‘Mind you I will have definitely settled for that result before the game,’ he admitted.

‘It was good to see the backine firing and they made the difference for us out there on the park.’

For once, too, we did not come out of the game with the negative of a major injury.

That said Malcolm Barnes did aggravate his shoulder in a masterful performance.

The coach is not too worried though because ‘he’s not moaning too much about it’.

Meanwhile, he was keen to praise the relatively inexperienced back-row thrown together, as well as young Cally Murdoch the hooker.

‘Dale and Leon played well and made good tackle counts.

‘Cally is still raw and it was only his second game. It’s different from the second team. He’s finding it a bit tough but he’s getting important minuets and will learn from it.’

Other results:
CS Rugby 1863 18, Barnes 41
London Irish Wild Geese 19, Gravesend 12
Tonbridge Juddian 23, East Grinstead 22
Tring 24, Westcombe Park 29
Westcliff 16, Hertford 9
Bury St Edmunds 32, Amersham & Chiltern 5