FOR the first time in 18 months Jersey RFC have lost a game of divisional rugby, going down 20-8 at Gosport and Fareham on Saturday in the London II South League.

And, afterwards, coach Dai Burton was not impressed by the manner of his side’s defeat.

‘The team we beat last week were a better side,’ he explained, ‘but you won’t win if you don’t take your chances.

We had them under pressure, constantly, in the first 20 minutes.

We missed two kickable penalties and had at least two try scoring opportunities.

Last week we had less chances – and won.

‘We also had a try scoring opportunity, when Dave Carswell was brought down a yard from the line, when a better option would have been to pass to Gareth Jeffreys.

After the match he said he simply hadn’t seen him, which is fair enough, but you only get so many opportunities to score in a game.

‘Our first chance came after about ten minutes, when we had them under so much pressure they conceded a penalty, which was from about 30 yards out, to the left of the posts.

Jonny Swift kicked wide and, ten minutes later, had another chance, which he also missed.

‘So, instead of opening up a lead, with 30 minutes gone John Allo was sin-binned when the referee had previously warned both sides about hands in the ruck, and after the penalty it was 3-0 to them.’ That was the score at half-time, and in the second half Jersey had more than the opposition to worry about.

They were now playing into the wind and the sun.

So, possession was harder to maintain, especially as the Gosport No 10 took an option Jersey might have considered 40 minutes earlier.

Playing ten-man rugby, he kept kicking the ball over the head of the Jersey wingers, relying on his big pack of forwards to trundle forwards for either a line-out or scrum.

Added Burton: ‘Shortly into the second half, we had a scrum on our ten yard line and fumbled the ball.

From a driving maul they pushed forward and, although they were held on the line, their big second row player, who was a thorn in our side throughout the match – 6 ft 5 in and 20 stone of muscle – took the ball and crashed over.

So it was now 10-0 to them.’ Jersey were struggling, and were to go another seven points down ten minutes later when a blind-side break, following a scrum five yards out from the Jersey line, saw their winger dot over for a simple try, which was again converted.

Jersey were now 17-0 down against a team which, on other occasions, they would easily have beaten.

‘Steve O’Brien and Ross Allan were making some terrific hits at centre,’ Burton said, ‘and we kept putting them under pressure – but not consistently.’ An easy penalty by Mark White, in front of the posts, made it 17-3, and then Steve O’Brien scored a half-decent try after a quickly taken tap penalty, which saw the Jersey captain make an outside break, to score in the corner.

There were 15 minutes to go and Gosport, visibly tiring as they walked to every line-out, were again under pressure.

The score could have been even closer, too, if a Carswell pass to Mark White hadn’t been two yards forward when they had a two to one overlap – but it was not to be.

Gosport had the last word, when their No 10 kept his 100 per cent record with another sweetly struck penalty.

The score was 20-8 and that, was how it was to remain.

‘We were fitter than them but we allowed the game to go away from us.

There were some good individual performances, for example from Richie Griffiths and John Allo, but our handling, in open play, was poor,’ said Burton.

‘However, what we have learnt, from both games we’ve played so far, is that we are not out of depth in this league.’ Jersey are currently seventh in the table and their next game, again away from home on Saturday, is in the Cup, against Tottonians.