Guernsey Raiders 2nd XV
Matches
Sat 13 Sep 2014  ·  Investec CI League
Guernsey Raiders
Guernsey Raiders 2nd XV
36
12
Quennevais
Youngsters step up

Youngsters step up

Natalie Davidson13 Sep 2014 - 20:33
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The points from beating the defending JRA league champions was, of course, important,but the performances of the youngsters particularly pleased.

Having overseen an ultimately comfortably 36-12 win over Les Quennevais, Stone enthused over his young lads.

‘For me it was great to see the young lads come in and play in such a mature fashion. It was senior debuts for Callum Gladstone, Ollie Daunt and Adam Rawles and we had Mitch Smith on for the full 80 in only his third or fourth senior game, said the coach. ‘Nico Ashplant also made an impact from the bench.'

‘These young lads have a bright future ahead of them.'

‘Their enthusiasm was married well to the experienced hands such as Dave O’Hanlon, Jim Regnard, Bradley Choules and Barry Goude who all put in the sort of performances we have come to expect of players of their ability.

‘We also had debuts for Dale Martin and John Bergh who are new to the island this year. These guys already look like great additions to our squad.’

It was no great surprise, given their dominance last season, when Les Quennevais started the brighter of the two teams having an extended period of possession in the Guernsey half.

But solid defence especially from some of the young lads meant that the Jersey side rarely threated the line.

When Guernsey did finally get some time on the ball at around the 20 minute mark, they scored with more or less their first serious attack of the game.

Experienced No. 8 Regnard made the first of a number of breaks to put the Les Quennevais defence onto the back foot allowing a quick pick up from number 9 Dave O’Hanlon who ghosted past a couple of defenders to score under the posts.

The conversion was added by Alec Bailey.

This score fired some life into Guernsey, and especially the pack, who after some early struggles at scrum time were starting to make real inroads into the Quennevais defence.

Strong running from Regnard, Choules and Callum Murdoch put Guernsey into the Quennevais 22 and with the Jersey side committing defenders to stop the pack, space opened up for Dave Davison to score from outside centre for a 12-0 lead.

The second half couldn’t have started any better for Guernsey as from a penalty in the first min Alec Bailey sent the kick right onto the Les Quennevais 5-metre line.

A catch at two from the impressive debutant Dale Martin set up a driving maul allowing Luke Gardner to touch down for his first try in four years.

Later, Gardner was to score another which put the game out of the visitors‘ reach at 29-5.

But credit to Les Quennevais who kept fighting hard and with 10 minutes to go some strong tackling resulted in a turnover on their 10 metre line where their standoff shipped the ball out to the left winger, Theo Ibbotson, who showed impressive footwork and pace to beat three defenders for a score under the posts.

Guernsey had the last say through Davison and with the conversion added by Bailey the final margin was 24 points.

‘We have areas we need to work on at training but a bonus point win against last season’s league winners is pretty much a perfect start to this JRA campaign,’ said Stone ‘The tough tests will be to match our home performances with the away games to sides like Les Quennevais and Jersey 2nds.’

The side’s next JRA game is away to Beeches on 4 October and then home to Banks a week later.

Team
1 Callum Murdoch
2 Bradley Choules
3 John Bergh (Russell Roberts)
4 Mitchel Smith
5 Dale Martin
6 Luke Gardner (Nico Ashplant)
7 Leon Gardner
8 Jim Regnard
9 Dave O’Hanlon
10 Alec Bailey
11 Ollie Daunt
12 Barry Goude
13 Dave Davison
14 Callum Gladstone (Adam Rawles)
15 Rory Jones (Andy Bailey)
16 Russell Roberts
17 Nico Ashplant
18 Adam Rawles

Match details

Match date

Sat 13 Sep 2014

Kickoff

11:00

Meet time

01:00

Competition

Investec CI League
Team overview
Further reading

Team Sponsors

Gold Sponsor - Babbé
Silver Sponsor - Polygon Collective
Charitable Partner - Betway
Sponsor of the Director of Rugby - Doyle Motors
Travel Kit Sponsor - Fresh Dental
Bronze Sponsor - Leapfrog Recruitment Consultants
Silver Sponsor - Little Big Group
Silver Sponsor - LTS Tax
Travel Kit Sponsor - MSF
Club Sponsor - Praxis IFM
Silver Sponsor - Rossborough Insurance
Shirt Sponsor - Spring
Shorts Sponsor - Wordley Law