5 in a row

Guernsey Vets continued their Nash Cup winning run with a close win against Jersey Wanderers.
Tries from Club Chairman Carl Johnson and Paul Christopher, plus a conversion and penalty from Ray Smart gave Guernsey a 15-12 half time lead. Wanderers took the lead with a try in the second half, but a late penalty from Smart was enough to keep the trophy for another year.

Further report courtesy of Chris Lake, Jersey Evening Post
http://www.thisisjersey.com/section/sport/

FOR the last four years Wanderers’ captain Iain Barclay had been on the losing side against the Guernsey Veterans but, with only a few minutes remaining and his team 17-15 up he must have expected his losing run to end.
Then, however, Guernsey were awarded a penalty. Ray Smart, who had already scored one, plus a conversion, strode up to the ball and hit a tired-looking shot which hit the post, bounced onto the crossbar and then dipped over the other side. For the fifth, and last time as captain, Barclay knew what it was like to trudge off the field defeated, this time 18-17.
‘I was annoyed to lose by one point,’ he said in an understated kind of way afterwards. ‘But then again we had our chances and if William Villiers (Lord Jersey) had kept on running after breaking away from our own 22 to theirs, we might have scored again. As it is, having a few former 1st XV players like Gareth Jeffreys in the team made a difference although Gary Rousseau (No 10) didn’t bring his kicking boots with him today.’
Accelerating
The vets’ Carl Johnson scored the first try early on before they turned a five-point lead into eight as Smart kicked the first of what would become two penalties, both for offside. However, Jeffreys, at full-back, then gathered the ball deep in his own half before accelerating to the line.
Another try by the full-back, this time as he cut inside, close to the posts, to give Rousseau an easy conversion, made it 12-8 to Jersey. But just before half-time, Paul Christopher stretched over and, with Smart’s conversion, it was the visitors who went into the break 12-15 in front.
In a dour second half Andy Allan was to score for Wanderers in the corner following a forward drive and, having three tries under their belt instead of Guernsey’s two, it seemed that the Nash would not be returning over the water. But it was not to be, and with two penalties, the last one a cruel miss-hit shot which still went over the bar, the Vets had won.
‘But I’ll be back next year,’ said Barclay phlegmatically. ‘I’m determined to break my five years’ duck!’