AGAINST second-placed Portsmouth on Saturday, Jersey, the better team, lost.

Despite scoring twice as many tries as the visitors in the London South Division II encounter at St Peter, the Jersey RFC 1st XV couldn’t hang on to a five-point lead and, with four minutes of the match remaining, let in Hampshire county winger Oge Ofuasia to score wide to the left of the posts.

With the score now tied at 24-24, the coolest man on the field and arguably Portsmouth’s man of the match, Neil ‘Nobby’ Styles, hit the ball cleanly through the posts for a match-winning conversion.

After that, Portsmouth sat back and saw out the game, knowing that there was very little Jersey could do to reverse the scoreline.

As referee Finbar Dodd said afterwards: ‘This was a cracking New Year’s game, which Jersey “”won”" by four tries to two.

‘However, although they were the better team over the 80 minutes, they haven’t yet learned to grind out a win, which is what you have to do in this division.’ He was right.

Not for the first time this season, Jersey kept giving the opposition more than one lifeline and even when Brett Els thundered through on the left, with eight minutes of the game remaining for a converted try, to make it 24-19, not one of the near 700-strong crowd believed it was over.

In the simplest terms possible, Jersey – unlike Portsmouth – don’t know how to hang on to a win.

In the space of three minutes they gave away the same number of penalties and from recycled ball from a line-out they were flat-footed as Ofuasia rounded full-back Gareth Jeffreys to score.

Although coach Dai Burton said, afterwards: ‘Portsmouth aren’t second-placed for nothing,’ as the visitors whooped with delight for stealing this game, he knew, full well, that these were two precious points lost when they were there to be won.

After an even first ten minutes the first score came when Portsmouth centre Matt Gronow, from well inside his own half and following sustained pressure by Jersey, ran through three missed tackles to set up Ofuasia for a converted try.

Fourteen minutes later Jersey caught and drove the ball over the line with flanker John Allo touching down.

Steve Mee converted from wide out on the right touchline.

Eight minutes later Portsmouth were back in the lead, 10-7, following a Neil Styles’ penalty.

However, with Portsmouth’s No 6, Harry Cripps, sin-binned in the 36th minute for wading into a ruck from the side, Jersey raised their game and Mark White, drifting from the left wing to the right scored a peach of a try with half-time looming.

The conversion was missed; and following another Styles’ penalty Jersey went into the break 13-12 down.

If Jersey had struggled at times in the first half, they were always the better side after the break and a darting Jeffreys run on the blind side, in the 42nd minute, regained the lead: 17-13 to Jersey.

Yet again they were pegged back, however, minutes later, by the unerring boot of a Styles penalty: 17-16, and Jersey’s lead looked fragile again.

So it proved.

A high tackle, dubiously awarded 25 yards out and in front of the posts meant that Styles could drill the ball over to regain the lead, 19-17.

However, with two new props on the field and a jaded Portsmouth side slowing down, Jersey bossed the game again and deserved their final score as Els found a huge gap, following good work by Ian Henderson, to touch down to the left of the posts.

Mee converted.

Now 24-19 to the good, Jersey should have played out the last few minutes of the game comfortably.

Instead, from the kick-off, they put themselves under pressure and a half-decent pass from fly-half Stuart McLaughlan to an unmarked Ofusia would have given Portsmouth at least a share of the points if the ball hadn’t been played behind him before the winger was given decent ball by his outside centre to outstrip Jeffreys to score in the corner.

After Styles’ immaculate conversion, it was game over.

The visitors had stolen a game Jersey ought to have won.

‘The same thing happened over there,’ said Burton, reflecting on what might have been.

‘We created huge amounts of space in the middle of the pitch, but didn’t make the most of it.

We’ll be better than this in the next game.’