Despite only trailing 5-0 at half-time, to an Andy Dawson try, the home side were eventually reduced to 13 men following injury and were then beaten by a side which over the course of the 80 minutes simply grew stronger and stronger.
As Les Quennevais captain, Darren O’Brien explained: ‘We’ve a small squad and through injury and holiday commitments we weren’t able to field the team we’d have liked.
Fair play to Beeches, though, they took us apart in the second half.’ Although Les Quennevais took full advantage of indiscipline by the Beeches, who gave away 20 yards to allow Richie Briffa to score late in the second half, by then the visitors had sewn up the game.
Of the six tries they ran past the westerners, the best score was Ed O’Sullivan’s second try, when he took clean possession and ran clear following an Andy Dawson break from the back of the scrum.
And, as Dawson explained afterwards, the key to the win was a dominant Beeches’ scrummaging machine.
‘We had some of our regular players away, but the strength in our pack was awesome, even though Les Quennevais had a good set of forwards.
But we were winning the ball against the head and, if we carry on playing like that, I believe we’ve a good chance of winning this league.
‘The eventual scoreline reflected how well we played, particularly in the second half.’ Although the westerners kept the score down to 5-0 until half-time, after that the Beeches took firm control of the game and scored five more tries with Ed O’Sullivan (2), Jim Thompson, Dan Ireland and Andy Dawson (2) all getting their names on the score sheet.
With regular fly-half Peter Stockley away, Scott Goldhawk was successful with four out of six conversion attempts.
The other scheduled game, between Jersey Wanderers and Jersey RFC’s 2nds, was not played as a league match.
A handful of Wanderers were joined by the Jersey Youth team for a friendly against the 2nds who ran out clear winners despite a spirited performance from the youngsters, many of them just 17 years old.
PWDLFAPts Dif Beeches950322712121106 Les Quennevais941420124618-45 United Banks84131771271750 Jersey 2nds65012265016176 Guernsey 2nds8404184184160 Wanderers730412819713-69 St Jacques91089931711-218
