JERSEY’S Ross Allan helped Devon reclaim rugby union’s County Championship Cup at Twickenham yesterday.
Former Jersey RFC mini Allan paraded the Bill Beaumont Cup around rugby’s headquarters after a convincing 27-6 victory over the pre-match favourites and cup holders Lancashire.
Allan was solid in the centre as man-of-the-match standoff Regardt Van Eyk dominated proceedings.
Allan had to leave the field for a head injury, but soon returned as one of the nine Plymouth Albion players in the starting line-up.
The match, televised live by Sky, was played in terrible conditions but Allan and Co mastered them well, in front of a sparse crowd.
Allan’s trademark hard-tackling was a feature in Lancashire’s inability to get into the game, though he was shown a yellow card for not releasing quickly enough in the second half.
Devon’s player coach Graham Dawe, the former England hooker, said afterwards: ‘We never expected to win by this sort of margin.
We stuck to our game plane and were very disciplined in the first 25 minutes.
That set us up for the rest of the game.’ Devon won with tries from Fabian, Kemberley and Van Eyk, plus another 12 points kicked by the latter.
Article posted on 29th May, 2007 - 12.00am
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