Guernsey Ladies 12 Newbury 32

OUR ladies ignored the league table and for half an hour on the old pitch last Sunday (5th Nov) lunchtime defied the odds and led the unbeaten Championship 2 SW league leaders.
Ultimately, Newbury’s extra class and fitness told and Guernsey slipped to a fifth straight defeat, but make no mistake about it this was a fine effort by Chris Griffiths’s side.
Certainly the coach thought so.
‘We really wanted to put in a much better performance this week, particularly defensively, than we did against Teddington two weeks ago, and I think for large parts of the game we certainly achieved that.
‘I was very proud of the team who took on an in form and top of the league Newbury and gave them a real scare.’
Justeen Baker scored a fine first half try converted by Jemma Crouse, who also missed another close range kick which would have stretched the lead to 10-0.

But by half-time, Newbury had found their rhythm and with three tries led 15-7.
In the second 40, Hannah Guilbert scored a second try for the home side who shipped a further three tries to ensure they took maximum points.
‘The second half was less fluid attacking wise,’ admitted Griffiths.
‘We lost our shape a little bit, but we were always competitive especially in the scrums and the lineouts and we could have scored a third try in the dying minutes but instead they took a quick penalty in their own 22 and managed to burst down the right to score in the corner.
‘Had we scored that third try and had we made all of our kicks we would have only been three points off, rather than 20, and that is what we are looking at now, fine margins, so we know we are getting closer to where we need to be.'