At Edinburgh yesterday afternoon they lost in the final 6-2 to England, having topped their group and having won their semi-final, comfortably, 5-2 against Wales.
‘England had a very strong team and dominated all of their finals,’ said team manager Morag Obarska.
‘So it was always going to be a tough task, to win it again.
And you have to remember that, compared to the teams we play against, we have very limited resources.
If we’d played at our very best we could have pushed them further and it was a much tighter game than the scoreline suggests.
I can’t fault the players.
Everyone in the team played their part in getting us through to the final.’ In the earlier rounds Jersey had won convincingly, topping their group having beaten Belgium 13-2, France 12-0 and Scotland 6-3.
Then, in their semi-final, they beat Wales 5-2 with tries from Chrissie Hefford, Chris Veal, Arnou Helmholt-Kneisel, Kevin McGinty and Mark Knight.
However, in the final, despite tries from Heidi McGinty and Chris Veal, they were always playing catch-up touch and couldn’t match the pace and athleticism of the England team.
Before then, in the run-up to the final, Helmholt-Kneisel had scored 12 tries and Veal nine.
In the ladies competition, however, Jersey came away from Edinburgh with a trophy, as they won the plate final 5-0 against France.
‘Sam Horsfall, the ladies’ captain, led by example,’ said Obarska.
‘And we kept improving all the time.
Earlier on we were losing badly, by scores of up to 14-0, but the more games we played, the better we got.
We were a much better side by the end of the competition.’ Also in competition in Edinburgh was a young Jersey men’s team, which included a couple of 15-year-olds who were there for ‘the experience’.
Despite losing 14-1 to Wales and 9-1 to Germany in the earlier rounds, they only lost by 5-4 to Switzerland on Saturday morning before going out of the competition in the quarter-finals, when they lost 12-1 to Scotland.
‘We knew we were taking a development squad, but if they keep playing, in another two years they will be that much stronger,’ said Obarska.
‘The problem with all of our touch teams is that they need more regular games.
‘We haven’t played Guernsey this year; they were in the other side of the draw.
So I’m looking forward to playing them at touch on 5 August.
After that we’ve the Worlds to look forward to, in South Africa in January, 2007.’
