Not a great weekend for the club, it has to be said. Hopes of finishing fifth in the National Three table took a blow with the big defeat at Hertford which was made that bit worse by a number of injuries.

Then, 24 hours, later, the Guernsey Ladies were edged out by just two points at Worthing, which means their hopes of finishing runners-up in NC South East South One, have disappeared.

As for the Raiders, they got off to a flying start away at Hertford with power through the forwards and attacking phases from the backs.
Hertford had a player sin-binned in the first 5 minutes, and after continued pressure from Raiders the backs and forwards combined well, Ned Brown passed to Matt Thomas to Jim Regnard and he fed Glen Walters to score under the posts for Owen Thomas to convert for a 7-0 lead after 15 minutes.

But five minutes later Hertford broke through the Raiders defence with a try in the corner. The conversion attempt was missed. Raiders continued to attack and having forced their way into the Hertford half they won a penalty.

The visitors kicked to the corner for a catch and drive try, but for once the ever-reliable lineout faltered and Hertford got off the hook. More than that, they ran out the ball which eventually led to another try in the same corner as the first.

Although the conversion was missed they were 10-7 ahead after 30 minutes. Despite being stronger in the scrum Raiders lacked the clinical skills at the right time and at the same time started to give away silly penalties against a good Hertford team, out to impress the large crowd due to being a charity day.

Unfortunately Owen Thomas had to leave the field due to a knock on the head leaving Raiders to shuffle the backs. It got worse. A knock on by Raiders allowed Hertford to retrieve the ball and run in another try just before half time to the score 15-7 at the break.

Early in the second half a tackle in the air saw the always influential Eamon Chapman yellow carded and Hertford cashed in. Their first attack of the half resulted in another silly penalty concession which they duly kicked.

The game flowed backwards and forwards the only difference being Hertford by now had gained the upper hand and they scored a try out wide on 15min. which was converted for a 25-7 lead, which soon became 30-7.

Layton Batiste then collected another yellow card and with young Matt Armstrong coming off with shoulder injury Raiders had no more subs, having travelled with only 17 players. Hertford winger scored his hat-trick much to the delight of the home crowd and there was time for one more try to complete a miserable day for the away side.

Incidentally, Hertford’s director of ruby, Paul Allen, once played for Guernsey in a Siam Cup.