Jersey Reds 19-10 Nottingham (RFU Championship) 09.11.19

A tough weekend in Jersey for Nottingham Rugby who fell short against a strong side with the away team slipping to a third successive league defeat after winning their opening two games in the Championship this season.

Nottingham now lie in seventh place from five games played with Bedford next up on Sunday as the Green & Whites will be looking to bounce back after three defeats that will be hard to take for Coach Neil Fowkes and his men.

A poor start on Saturday afternoon at the Stade Santander International as after just three minutes the home team scored a try which was converted with things getting worse as first O’Leary went off for a head injury assessment before replacement kicker Dolly hit the post with his penalty.

O’Leary returned and the away teams fortunes did too as they were awarded a penalty try before O’Leary’s drop goal gave Nottingham a 10-7 half time lead.

In a tight game on a heavy wet pitch Nottingham went closest in the early stages of the second half as they missed a drop goal attempt before Jersey finally got the breakthrough their forwards were looking for on 60 minutes as prop Godfrey went over before Cope converted.

With time running out Nottingham received two yellow cards to first Jamie Jack then Josh Poullet which reduced the side to thirteen during the later stages and Jersey took advantage as Harris went over to ensure a two score lead for the home side.

Starting Team: Sean Scanlon, Kyran Bungaroo, Joe Thomas, Luke Peters, Ben Foley, Shane O’Leary, Alex Dolly, Aniseko Sio, Luke Cole, Billy Walker, Llewelyn Jones, Danny Qualter, James Connolly, Will Owen, Josh Poullet.

Replacements: Ben Brownlie, Jamie Jack, Oisin Heffernan, Cameron Jordan, Sam Lewis, Murray McConnell, Johnny McPhillips, Harry Strong.

*Main image @JerseyReds steam on a cold day rises from the scrum.