The first five minutes were fought at close quarters and the breakdown area was being hotly contested by both sides, however, Barnes gave away the first penalty which allowed Guernsey to work their way up to the Barnes 22.

With around 10 minutes gone Guernsey’s Heidi Mahy surged forward brushing aside tackles only to be brought down just shy of the line by some desperate defending, Barnes somehow managed to get their hands on the ball from the ensuing ruck and cleared their lines. Two minutes later Jemma Crouse was denied a try on the left-hand side as she darted around the side of a ruck but was deemed to have made a double movement as she stretched out to dot the ball down.

Guernsey seemed fairly in control of things at this point but against the run of play they were soon to regret their missed chances as the pacy Barnes No.9 made a break out of absolutely nothing and scored a well taken individual try in the corner. It then took Guernsey almost up until the half time whistle to finally get the ball across the line themselves.

Once again Guernsey had managed to work their way into the Barnes 22 and this time from 5 metres out Fiona Power would not be denied a score as Jemma Crouse passed a ball away from the base of a ruck, Power stormed through several tackles to just reach across the line to score in the corner. The half time score 5-all.

The second half was to be a tense affair as Barnes’ No.9 once again used her pace to run back against the direction of play and get on the outside of the cover to score in the right hand corner with hardly a hand being laid on her. This seemed to spur Guernsey into action as the forwards began to carry the ball at pace into the Barnes defensive line which forced them to give away penalties.

As Guernsey were now playing most of their rugby in the Barnes half, a well worked backs move from a scrum saw Vicki Rang cut a great line from outside centre to burst through the defence to score a very well taken try, the conversion was kicked by Jemma Crouse and Guernsey had their noses in front for the first time at 12-10.

Very much in search of the five-try bonus point win Guernsey then piled on the pressure and worked the ball deep into the Barnes 22 and on the right-hand side, Chelsie Blondel eventually dived across the line amid a cluster of defenders. Jemma Crouse kicked the conversion brilliantly from quite a way out to make it 19-10.

Barnes seemed to be struggling for fitness with 15 minutes to go and the conditioning and fitness of the Guernsey girls saw them continue to recycle the ball well and with some great ball handling down the back line Vicki Rang split the defence once again to score her second, the kick was made and Guernsey now seemed to have the game sewn up.

However Barnes were not done yet and whilst Guernsey searched for the 5th try they were dealt a sucker punch once again handed out by the Barnes No.9 as she sniped down the right-hand side and just managed to break through the covering tackle of full-back Rebekah Fant.

Guernsey then went all out to get the 5th try and managing to get near the Barnes 22 they had to then try and steal a Barnes lineout which they crucially did through Ellie Whittles, the ball was quickly whipped out to Hannah McLennan at fly-half and with some nice handling from Chelsie Blondel at inside centre she put her centre partner Vicki Rang into a gap that she exploited brilliantly to sprint under the posts, score her hat-trick and secure the bonus point win.

Jemma kicked the conversion and the final whistle blew with Chris Griffiths having got over his half-time frustration, ‘We are now two points clear at the top of the League going into 2017 with five out of our six remaining games at home so we are in a fantastic position to have a real crack at promotion and with Ashford up first on January 7th we hope to keep the winning ways going right from the start of the year.’