The try scorers were Vicki Rang 4, Hannah McLennan 3 (her 2nd hat-trick in 3 games), Tanya Scholtz 2, Lauren Finch 1 (her 4th in 3 games since her debut) and Aiga Vecmane, who scored on her debut.

The Guernsey forwards were imperious at the set piece, winning nearly all of our own ball at the lineout and scrums and stealing a lot of the opposition ball too. This gave the backline clean ball and time and again the handling and running lines of the backs was at times sublime, we simply cut them to pieces making the most of the lions share of possession.

To Ashford’s credit they stuck at it even when the scoreline was racking up against them and for a large part of the game they were reduced to 14 players due to the injuries. Naturally, our coach was a fairly satisfied man afterwards. ‘For me the most rewarding part of the performance was seeing an improvement on decision making especially when we were making breaks, we worked hard to get players in support and if support wasn’t there we had learned not to simply throw the ball away. I was also very pleased with our defensive display, keeping a 0 on the scoreboard when you are away from home is never easy and we managed it this week having given away one soft try in each of our last two matches.’

‘The continuity we are working so hard to create in training seems to be really working with options left and right of the ball carrier at all times, I think we simply overwhelmed them with offloading out of the tackle and the lines of support, there just always seemed to be a Guernsey player available to carry the ball on, it was just wave after wave of attack.’

The forwards really upped their game in the loose, with really powerful ball carrying from the likes of Tanya Scholtz, Fiona Power, Kristne Vavere and Heidi Mahy, who time and again carried the ball well beyond the gain line often taking several Ashford players with them. The breakdown in particular was much improved and this allowed Jemma Crouse and Fiona Ashworth to run the show. They were both fantastic at keeping the tempo high against a team that was flagging.

Meanwhile, the handling of the two centres Hannah McLennan and Lauren Finch was very impressive indeed and Hannah really deserved her hat-trick. And at 15, Vicki Rang undoubtedly seems to be getting a real feel for playing full back now, entering the line at just the right time with real pace and purpose. All 4 of her tries were superbly taken.
‘The best moment for me was watching another player make here debut and score, so when Aiga Vecmane went over with five minutes to go it really was the icing on the cake,’ said Griffiths.

‘We have Canterbury in two weeks time and we need to keep our levels of fitness and intensity high so that we continue in the same rich vein of form that we have started the season so far, to that end we will be pushing ourselves even harder at training in the next few sessions so that we continue to try and improve even further and stay top of the table.’