AS expected, Jersey Rugby Club 2nds beat St Jacques and Beeches beat Les Quennevais in the opening fixtures of JRA inter-insular league on Sunday.

However, in Guernsey, Jersey United Banks set a first for new captain Ivan Murphy by beating a strong Guernsey 2nd side 21-19 with virtually the last play of the match.

‘Over the last 12 years I’ve never beaten them in a Banks’ team playing away from home,’ said Murphy.

‘They had a big pack, and twice, both at the start of the first half and the start of the second, we had to weather the storm.

We were losing with ten minutes to go but from the kick-off, after we’d gone behind, we picked up the tempo and put them under pressure on the right-hand side.

We scored with Ed O’Brien and Antoine Bacquet both laying claim to the try.

Jimmy McCormack converted and Guernsey had paid the price for missing a conversion in front of the posts at the very start.

‘I’m delighted.’ Despite losing, Guernsey captain Mark Stone said it was: ‘one of the best games I’ve ever played in.

As an advert for the sport, it was fantastic.’ The score at half-time was 7-5 to Banks, thanks to a Richard Stevens score, coming into the line from full-back, and a conversion by Jimmy McCormack after the Guernsey pack had muscled their way over the line within the first ten minutes.

In the second half the Guernsey pack pushed the score to 19-0, with two more tries, both converted.

Banks’ reply was a penalty try when Guernsey came in offside with the visitors already over the try-line.

Even then, Banks were 19-14 down before those final tense minutes.

McCormack converted all three tries.

Meanwhile, the same camaraderie in defeat was experienced at St Peter, where St Jacques, fielding three inexperienced players, went down 31-0 to Jersey 2nds.

‘Our two centres had never played before; our scrum-half only once,’ said St Jacques’ veteran Jeff Guilbert afterwards.

‘So we were delighted with the score, playing away from home.’ The 2nds’ best try was started and finished by full-back Jon Swift, who took the ball, handed on to winger Mark Le Mottée and was at hand to score some 30 seconds later, at the other end of the pitch.

Le Mottée went on to score two tries of his own; Matt Howe, from flanker (and arguably the man of the match) scored twice, and Swift kicked over three conversions.

Afterwards coach Dai Burton, who had seen the 2nds waste good possession on more than one occasion said: ‘It was good to get this first game out of the way.

And full marks to St Jacques for making it difficult for us to score.’ The final game of the day, again at St Peter, had Les Quennevais doing well to hold out Beeches for 34 minutes before a series of penalties led to an inside break by Jim Thompson, whose try was followed by a superb Peter Stockley conversion.

Five minutes later a long kick and then disarray in the Les Quennevais defence saw Andy Paton score another Stockley-converted try, to bring the score to 14-0 at half-time.

With the wind, and with Stockley’s measured kicks or looping passes out to the threes in the second half brought further tries for Dave Stancer (two) and Dan Ireland.

Stockley was to add to his overall total of three conversions with a try for himself, while afterwards team captain Gary Osborne, watching from the sideline, was pleased with what he had seen.

‘I was pleased with the way that Andy Paton, at lock, played, and our scrum-half also had a good game, to score two tries,’ he said.

Les Quennevais captain, Darren O’Brien, who must have been heartened by the way his pack disrupted Beeches in the set scrum, was more phlegmatic.

He said he was simply relieved ‘to be able to field 15 full Les Quennevais players (plus two reserves) for the first time in ages’.

So, after one round played, Jersey 2nds remain favourites to win the league this year, but the Banks’ win over Guernsey suggests the contest will be more than just interesting in the months to come.

Friendly, on Saturday: Jersey Wanderers 26 (tries: Dai Burton, Jeremy Willis, Andy Fage, Kevin McGinty; conversions: John Creavy, 3), Maidstone Vets 0.