Medway's impressive win in Guernsey on Saturday has put them right back in the title picture, the victory drawing them within three points of Guernsey and Lewes who now lead the division on points difference.

Chris Griffiths, the Guernsey coach, said the result, while disappointing, alters little.
'It was disappointing to lose but you sometimes just have to give credit to the opposition and in this case, Medway played with real purpose and commitment and they defended their line extremely well in the last 10 minutes to keep us out. In the grand scheme of things, it actually makes no difference to what we now need to do to win the league as even if we had beat Medway we would still have needed to beat Lewes next and then the final two matches against New Ash Green and Worthing. So we’re in the same position and our goals remain the same to win our last three games.'

Intriguingly, Medway still have Lewes to play in a few weeks time, so that will be a fascinating match as well as Guernsey's home game against Lewes on 11 February.
Looking back on Saturday's reverse, Griffiths said his had been 'fairly confident' of getting the result but the pre-match optimism was tempered with the knowledge that Medway were the hardest team Guernsey have played so far this season.

'So we knew it was going to be a real battle and that is how it turned out. The teams were pretty much level pegging at 13-15 to Medway with 20 minutes left to play but we really went to sleep in defence for the two tries they then went on to score to make the gap 13-27. It wasn’t for want of trying to close that gap as twice we went deep into their 22 but failed to capitalise on the pressure and just weren’t clinical enough, if we had been it may have been a different story, but on fine margins are results decided.Getting the losing bonus point was important and could be crucial in the end as whatever happens I suspect this season will go right down to the wire.'

Griffiths said his side were really tested in the scrums where for once they met their match and it was a genuine contest at every scrum. 'We also didn’t have it all our own way in the lineout where honours were even. The collisions were pretty big with some great tackling from both sides but I think it was once again the losing of possession once too often at the breakdown that didn’t allow us to get any rhythm or enough time with the ball in our possession.'

In truth, Guernsey could not get a handle on Charlie Ward, the outstanding player on show. The right wing possessed power and pace and that combination proved too much for Guernsey to handle as she helped herself to a hat-trick of tries. Tanya Scholtz and Anneka Saunders scored the Guernsey tries and captain Jemma Crouse added a conversion.