Jersey last beat Loughborough three months ago to book their place in National One

JERSEY RFC scored seven unanswered tries to win their one and only pre-season friendly, against Loughborough at St Peter, in comfortable fashion on Saturday afternoon, 45-3.

Once again the National One new boys were far too strong in the pack for the students, who also went down 30-5 in the National II play-off against Jersey three months ago.

Played in four quarters and watches by hundreds of Islanders in blazing sunshine, Jersey fell behind after 15 minutes but came back to lead 33-3 by half-time.

A disjointed, scoreless third-quarter followed but Jersey finished with a flourish with two more tries. Crossing the students’ line were Nick Trower (2), James Copsey (2), Michael Le Bourgeois, Nicky Griffiths and Guy Thompson.

Le Bourgeois kicked five conversions and coach Ben Harvey deemed it a highly satisfactory start to the season.

Jersey’s National One campaign starts away to Fylde next Saturday.

Jersey, wearing their blue strip, wore back armbands and both teams observed a minute’s silence in remembrance of the victims of last weekend’s stabbings in St Helier.

See Monday’s JEP for full match report and pictures