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Disappointing day home and away

Disappointing day home and away

Alexandra Wallace26 Sep 2016 - 09:22
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A FIRST defeat of the season for the lads emphasised – if it needed any – that in this division there is no room for off days.

Shelford 22, Guernsey Raiders 17

A FIRST defeat of the season for the lads emphasised – if it needed any – that in this division there is no room for off days. And if a first loss in four for the Raiders was not disappointing enough, domestically our second string - playing under the St Jacques banner – saw their Hampshire Merit Solent League game called off as Winchester failed to raise a full team.

A match did go ahead at the KGV, but the friendly against a Select XV was small consolation, especially when you consider the travel bill. Meanwhile, there were travel issues for the Raiders squad. They were held up in traffic due to a crash and the 3 hour journey put the kick off time back half an hour.

With the wind and slope Shelford attacked from the start and kept Raiders pinned in their own half for a good while, eventually forcing a penalty which gave them a 3-0 lead.

Raiders finally broke into opposition territory with a driving run through the forwards and Tom Ceillam returned the favour of a conceded penalty which was slotted over by Kenny Hellier. That was seven minutes in and on 14 minutes Anthony Armstrong, who had flown down from Edinburgh for the game, made one of his searing runs from the Raiders 25 only to be chopped down around the neck by the Shelford full back.

That brought a yellow card and three more points in front of the posts for Hellier, although many thought that it should have been a penalty try. Shelford had the opportunity to level the score with another penalty, but missed.

The game continued to be a real dog fight with both teams driving back each other’s attacks and approaching the half-hour mark Shelford gained another penalty with Raiders punished for wheeling the scrum, but it was missed and it remained 6-3 to the visitors at the break.

The second half started with Shelford camped in the Raiders half and Matt Thomas was yellow carded for bring down a driving maul. This then led to Shelford’s first try under the posts by their Fijian winger, which was converted for a 10-6 lead.

Raiders, who were guilty of not taking advantage of either the wind or the slope, then fell further behind. Straight from the kick off Shelford gathered the ball and shifted it through the backs and the Fijian scored his second try, capitalising on poor defence.

Raiders were now 17-6 down but they clawed back a penalty from Kenny Hellier on the Shelford 10m line and the situation brightened further when Luke Jones flew down the wing to score in the corner.

Hellier, from the touchline, hit the left post leaving the score at 17-14. Despite mounting injuries to the Shelford team Raiders failed to take advantage and, worse still, with 10 minutes left new captain Lewis Hillier was yellow carded for a high tackle.

Shelford added more misery on Raiders by pushing them off their own scrum and let the Shelford scrum half touch down behind the try line and a sleepy Raiders defence for a 22-14 lead.

The easy conversion was missed and the game finished with a halfway line penalty kick for our new boy Hellier to earn the Raiders a match losing bonus point: 22-17.

The only good points from the game as far as Raiders were concerned was that Gareth Davies putting his small body on the line against a huge Fijian, while it was a good kicking display from Kenny Hillier.

Antony Armstrong ran some good lines, but the team missed Owen Thomas at fly half and Ned Brown was used to much and nullified by his old team, who targeted him the whole game.

This should serve as a wake up call for Raiders as there will be no easy games in this league and they can not afford to be complacent.

Guernsey Raiders:
Steventon, Ceillam, Batiste, Skovronek, Merrien, Hillier, Hill, M. Thomas, Nixon, Hellier, Davies, Brown, Jones, Challinor, A. Armstrong

Replacements:
Collenette, Ashplant, Ahne

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