In terms of entertainment value, this virtually covered the price of a season ticket let alone the afternoon admittance as a big crowd were treated to 14 tries and nigh-on 100 points in a rollicking contest between two sides with contrasting styles but with little to separate them in National Two South.

Crucially for the home fans, though, Raiders came out on top and claimed a vital bonus-point victory that took them level with Old Albanians on 59 points in the league table.

It was a deserved win over 80 pulsating minutes, but, boy, they had to work for it.

There were outstanding individual performances with flying duo Ethan Smith and Callum Roberts leading the way with a couple of tries apiece for the hosts, while Ciaran McGann continues to push his claims for the player-of-the-season accolade as the backs enjoyed the dry and mainly sunny conditions.

On the ‘One Club United’ day at the Garenne Stand, it was also fitting that local academy graduates also put their hands up for Guernsey with Brad Webb and Matt Creber producing some big moments while Tom Teasdale enjoyed orchestrating proceedings from fly-half when Raiders were on the front foot.

As is to be expected on a day when you concede more than 40 points, there were lessons to be learnt, too, with that word ‘discipline’ likely to be at the forefront of training this week as the penalty count was too high again.

But in isolation, this was a match to be enjoyed.

McGann gave the hosts the lead through an early penalty, but OAs scored the first try on 8min. through Harrison Legg after Ben Alexander’s break left them in a four-on-one scenario.

The response was truly instant as Smith collected Teasdale’s hanging restart at full pace on the left wing and raced to the line to the backing track of a wonderful Garenne Stand roar.

The see-saw nature of the opening quarter continued with visiting scrum-half Bailey Thomas scoring a sniping try under the posts to briefly restore the lead, but Raiders responded by winning a scrum penalty and then using the resulting possession to work an overlap on the right with Sam Boyland going over in the corner.

It was in the second quarter, though, that Guernsey built the platform from which they won the game.

On 20min. Smith read an OAs pass perfectly to make an interception on halfway way and sprint untouched to the line then moments later he was threatening to complete a hat-trick as he hacked on a bouncing ball, only to be illegally pushed over by Alexander as he attempted to gather – an act that saw the OAs centre sin-binned.

Guernsey quickly made the most of their numerical advantage with Hugo Culverhouse scoring at the end of multiple phases inside the opposition’s 22 and before the half-hour Teasdale jinked his way through the defensive line to spring another attack that resulted in Roberts turning on the afterburners to gallop to the line.

McGann’s conversion gave Raiders a comfortable 36-14 lead, but that was reduced by a dozen before the interval thanks to tries for Alessandro Ricci and Thomas, which gave the home side the warning they probably needed that the job was not done yet.

Ten minutes into the second half, OAs were back within five points when a sensational offload in the build-up led to a second try for Ricci and they threatened to carry that momentum forward until Creber made a vital line-out steal.

That turnover led to Raiders enjoying their best spell of the second half as McGann added 10 more points to their total thanks to an intercept try that he converted and then a successful penalty to extend the lead to 15.

However, OAs were not about to give up and Thomas completed his hat-trick with 10 minutes remaining to cause just a few nerves in the crowd.

The Raiders response was to execute a well-crafted set move off a line-out which resulted in Smith bursting through the defensive line before passing to Roberts to score.

That made Toby Ponsford’s powerful run to the line in the closing stage a mere consolation for the visitors.