ALTHOUGH Jersey won all three touch inter-insulars at St Peter on Saturday, the Guernsey coach and organiser, Andrew Hutton, was not dismayed, seeing this rather as another learning curve as he looks to the European championships in Edinburgh next year.

We only began the league in May,’ he said.

‘But since then the interest has been phenomenal.

We’ve now 22 teams in the league, 14 mixed and eight men’s.

It’s really taken off.

‘We’re aiming for Edinburgh – definitely.

‘Jersey are a good side, so this has been a benchmark for us.

Starting up the league in Guernsey has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done.

We can only get better.’ Hutton was talking inbetween games, which saw the Jersey women’s team win 12-1, the men’s team win 13-1 and the mixed team 7-0.

All three games saw Jersey dominate, although their success was mainly due to a better technical understanding of the game, a few individual flourishes from players whose teamwork was outstanding in all three matches, and Guernsey’s naivety.

As Jersey’s Morag Obarska explained, mid-way through the men’s match: ‘the standard of passing has improved tremendously over the last two years.

The girls, as well as the men, can pass the ball that much better.’ So the women’s team won comfortably, with scores by Elle Richings (3), Chrissie Hefford (4), Jacqui Norman, Sam Horsfall (2), Rena Nelson and Clare Le Maistre.

Such was their control of the game that Jersey were 8-1 up at half-time, the only touch down by Guernsey being scored by Lyndsey Henderson.

In the second half Jersey played within themselves, knowing that their lead was such that the game was already effectively over, in their favour.

The same dominance was shown in the men’s inter-insular, which Jersey won 13-1 with every player, including coach Dan McDowell, playing to their potential.

The New Zealand coach, who has a dazzling sidestep, afterwards talked about his team ‘gelling together’ as Chris Veal (2), Kevin McGinty (2), Mark Knight (1), Arnou Helmholt-Kneisel (3), Luke Fisher (1) and McDowell himself (4), laid siege to the Guernsey line.

At times the passing of the ball showed how clinically effective the men’s team now are; and how good they can become if they are to challenge for a title in Scotland in just under a year.

‘But we’ve still got a long way to go,’ said McDowell, even though the Jersey mixed team are current European champions.

‘In the mixed team we needed to communicate better today.

But it will come.’ McDowell was speaking after seeing his mixed team gradually impose their control on the game, even though the Guernsey team were fresh for the match, unlike the Jersey side, whose team members had already taken part in either the men’s or women’s competition.

McDowell, running into space, scored Jersey’s first try in the mixed game.

Again he found a gap four minutes later, before Helmholt-Kneisel found space and unloaded to Ben Small, to make it 3-0 to Jersey with less than five minutes played.

Knight then ran through, before a Guernsey player, on the line, tapped his legs and prevented him from scoring, which meant that at half-time Jersey’s lead remained at three scores to nil.

Then, from the start of the second half, Hefford’s run into space put McDowell into space again, for his third try.

Richings created McDowell’s fourth try, sucking in the cover defence before passing the ball, to make it 5-0.

A brief Guernsey come-back then culminated in Small being yellow-carded, after more of a rugby tackle than a touch, before the same player came back refreshed from his two-minute sin bin to find a gap in the Guernsey threes to put Jersey 6-0 in the lead.

Guernsey were quickest to the ball at this time, but were unable to turn possession into points, even though Jersey were clearly wilting.

However, another McDowell break and a massive over-the-head pass to Kevin McGinty saw the former 1st team full-back run in from three yards out to touch down.

Jersey had won 7-0, although McDowell believes there is room for improvement.

‘We played well in the mixed game although towards the end you could see how tired we were: that suggests to me that we can only get better.’ The Jersey touch teams were sponsored by Ernst and Young.