PLAYER-COACH Mark Stone was a frustrated man after his 2nd XV come home from Jersey having suffered a two-point loss to Beeches which harms their JRA league title prospects.
‘The reality is that we should have been out of sight by half time,’ he said afterwards.
Guernsey 2nds took an early lead through a Barry Goude try in the corner after a cheeky through the legs pass from Dave Davison put the wing away in the corner.
The visitors dominated early in the scrums and ruck area but final execution in the danger area let them down on multiple occasions.
A quick tap from a penalty in front of the posts resulted in a Guernsey scrum and despite a great shove from the pack to get them to the line a knock-on at the base meant five points went begging.
Further visits over the Beeches line resulted in no points as Taylor Quate was somehow judged to be held up, as was Berian Jones and Quate had a second opportunity ruled out as a knock-on in the act of grounding the ball on the line.
The game was stopped for five minutes as the Beeches hooker suffered a nasty broken arm and after the break in play Beeches came out the more fired up.
In a pattern reminiscent of the recent inter insular, the Jersey side put in big runner after big runner to batter the Guernsey defence and finally crossed the line for 5 -5.
Guernsey then finally showed a clinical edge with Quate getting the try his performance deserved in supporting a break by No.10 Alec Bailey.

Minutes later, Rory Jones looked to be clean though from 70 yards only for a desperate tap tackle to bring the fullback down just over the half way line.
The ball went forward for a Beeches scrum.
Great work from the pack took the ball against the head and No. 8 Mike Smith picked up and made a burst down the short side feeding the ball to Quate who shipped on to Stone who beat the covering winger and showed good foot work to stand up the fullback and beat him on the outside for an unopposed run in under the posts.
Bailey made the conversion for score of 5-17 at half time.
The second half was a much more even affair but again Guernsey were guilty of blowing a number of scoring opportunities.
Beeches saw that their best chance was to continue to run their strong runners at the fringes of the breakdown time and time again and despite a strong effort from the visitors, Luke Gardner was particularly impressive in the tackle area, they were able to cross the line twice in the opening 20 minutes of the half to put them 19-17 with the final quarter of the game remaining.
‘The Beeches Nos. 7 and 5 were causing particular problems and were taking multiple defenders to stop creating the space Beeches then exploited,’ said Stone later.
‘We responded well and spent a good 10 minutes camped on the Beeches try line where multiple penalties were won – and I’m not entirely sure how Beeches were allowed to keep 15 players on the pitch.
‘Young debutant Fergus Moriarty, who had recently come on in the back row, was again ruled held up over the line and we ultimately had to settle for three points with 5 minutes to go after yet another penalty was conceded by the hosts.’
That meant 19-20 to Guernsey with time fast running out.
‘We were then guilty of sloppy play from the restart when the receiver of the deep kick off was not supported well enough and was forced to concede a penalty for holding on and immediately handing the lead back to Beeches from the resultant kick.
‘We had one final chance to take the win we deserved when Russell Roberts made a break after bouncing a defender but his pass failed to stick in the hands of Quate, who would have been in under the posts.
‘It was a very competitive match and shows our young team is going in the right direction.
‘A bit more experience and clinical nature in the final third and we’ll be putting sides like this away on a regular basis.
‘ I’ve been involved in the second team for over 15 years and that is most gutted I’ve seen a changing room after a 2nd XV match outside of Fallaize Cups.
‘It shows we are starting to build a competitive and serious side and I think that is rubbing off from our more consistent interactions with the 1st XV in training.
‘We had another five players under-20 in the match day squad and that is a great thing for the future of the club.
‘We have the chance to bounce straight back as we host Les Quennevais on Saturday afternoon at Footes Lane.’