FOLLOWING Jersey’s 14-6 defeat at Hayward’s Heath on Saturday – their first of the season – the home side are now hot favourites for the title and automatic promotion into London Division I, while Jersey will almost certainly will be put to the test again in the play-offs.

That was the outcome of a tense 80 minutes on an exposed pitch with a swirling wind favouring Hayward’s Heath in the first half and Jersey in the second.

However, unlike Hayward’s Heath, Jersey were unable to capitalise on the conditions and despite being held up twice over the line, in the 51st and 60th minute, they ended the game with nothing to show for a mammoth 40 minutes of endeavour in a scoreless second half.

With this win, which the home side deserved for two early tries followed by heroic defence, Hayward’s Heath have three games to go before promotion will surely be theirs.

Heath’s Director of Rugby, Nigel Baker, pinpointed the reasons for his side’s tremendous recent form.

‘Since the beginning of the season we made it our priority not to let opposition teams score against us,’ he said. ‘I think we’ve only let in nine tries in all this season. I’ve also been pleased that 75 per cent of our tries have been scored from outside our No 12.

‘When I look at the table tonight it will be a reality check, to see that we’re finally top of the league.

‘But take nothing away from Jersey. Both sides deserve to be in London I; but I can’t understand why time and time again they tried to run the ball at us from the fringes . . . They were going nowhere.’

Despite one or two booming kicks down field in the second half by stand-off Ben Harvey, and a fifteeen-minute period when Jersey’s rolling mauls kept Hayward’s Heath on the back foot, Jersey looked short of scoring options.

And by this time Jersey were already 14-6 down, following a try by No 13, former Oxford Varsity player Sam Humphrey-Baker in the fifth minute when he brushed aside two clumsy tackles to touch down close to the posts before captain Simon Fifield made it 7-0 with the conversion.

Despite a Ben Harvey penalty, which made it 7-3, try-scoring machine Jo Govett then made it 14-3 in the 30th minute when he ran around his opposite winger for another converted try.

Kicking into the wind Harvey made it 14-6 with another penalty just before the break, but in front of a 600-plus crowd the Island XV turned around having had no opportunities, to date, of scoring a try of their own.

‘To be honest, I wasn’t too worried with the half-time scoreline because I knew in the second half conditions would be in our favour,’ said captain Kern Yates afterwards.

‘But their left winger did a lot of damage. In the loose we had the beating of them, but they were more than holding their own in the scrum, so we weren’t getting any kind of platform. Fair play to the Jersey lads, though. They played their hearts out.’

‘At their place they beat us by eight, at home we beat them by five,’ said Jersey coach Barry George afterwards.

‘I’ve no complaints. On the day we were beaten by the better team. Either way up we need to win our last three games and make the play-offs. Our season’s not over. We can still make promotion into London I.’

If Jersey do make the play-offs on Saturday 26 April their opponents, probably at St Peter, will be one of three north London teams, Tring, who currently top the table, Staines or Chingford, one point behind them in joint second place.