Cambridge (A) 12.11.11

Cambridge (13) 13 Jersey (21) 54

A stunning second-half display by Jersey brought the Islanders 33 unanswered points and sealed an emphatic victory over the team who lay third in the National One table before kick-off.

The second-half display was all the more remarkable in that Jersey played with 14 men after the dismissal late in the first period for Nathan Hannay for an alleged head-butt in an incident that also saw Cambridge No 8 Darren Fox given a yellow-card for retaliation.

Guy Thompson gave the visitors an early lead, supplemented by a Mike Le Bourgeois penalty, but Anders Mogensen's try, converted by Tom Wheatcroft, made it 7-8. The kickers swapped penalties and in the 23rd minute Dave McCormack shrugged off three tackles to score. A drop-goal by Le Bourgeois and another Wheatcroft penalty completed the scoring to make it 21-13 to Jersey at the break.

For the second week running Guy Thompson scored two tries within the first 10 minutes of the restart, completing a stunning hat-trick and pushing Jersey out of sight. After a lull there was a further burst of three tries in the last 16 minutes. Ed Dawson was first over, then Myles Landick celebrated his second try for Jersey - the first in the Championship semi-final against Taunton 18 months ago - and finally Le Bourgeois crossed to complete a personal haul of 24 points.

After the game Landick praised the outstanding defensive effort which had underpinned the victory, while Head Coach Ben Harvey described it as the best performance by Jersey away from home in the three years he had been involved.

Jersey move above Cambridge and take fifth spot in the table, with 38 points, as a result of the win. Ealing still lead on 53 points, followed by Fylde (42), Rosslyn Park and Coventry (both 39). Beneath Jersey, Cambridge are sixth (36 points) followed by Blackheath and Macclesfield (35 each), Sedgley Park (33) and this weekend's opponents Tynedale (10th position, 32 points, after losing out narrowly at home to Ealing by 29-24.

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STOP PRESS: Jersey supporter Graham Holland was at the game, and wrote this eye-witness account. It's a fans' eye-view, so we've left in the nicknames, and apologies to anyone who can't discern who's who...

Here's my report - I hope I can do more justice to an amazing second half display from Jersey than The Rugby Paper, who summed up the whole half in 27 words. Less than a word per point!

Jersey had a perfect start when a punt up field from Macca bounced kindly into the hands of Guy Thompson who showed everyone a clean pair of heels to power over, 30 seconds gone and 5 nil up.

Jersey continued to push forward with most of the game being played in the Cambridge half and were fortunate when Cambridge wasted offside advantage as two players crossed as they broke out near the half way line. Penalty to Jersey: Mikey made it look easy from distance, and it was 0 - 8.

Cambridge's best two players, 11 & 13, combined with a speedy break and the winger went under the posts for a converted try. 7 - 8.

More Jersey forward pressure forced a straightforward penalty for Mikey, 7-11, but similar pressure in our half saw a Cambridge penalty go over. 10 - 11.

Back came Jersey - big scrum on the Cambridge 22 - Macca lined up everyone to his right and then picked up and ran left on the blindside, broke through three tackles and scored a cracker. Mikey made a difficult kick look easy: 10 - 18.

Cambridge then stepped up a gear and attacked for the next 10 minutes, forcing some solid Jersey defence.

The Cambridge right winger was chasing his own kick into the corner when he was blocked off by the Jersey full back. The home crowd were baying for blood. Red card? Penalty try? were the popular cries. Fortunately the ref viewed the incident the same way as I did: Copsey's momentum had carried him into the winger, it stopped a certain try but was not intentional.

Cambridge kept the pressure on in the corner and the ref had to give them something so G Bell took a yellow for the team and Cambridge took the three points from the penalty. 13 - 18.

Jersey came straight back and the forwards showed tremendous power on the Cambridge 22, allowing Macca to set up Mikey for a rare drop goal. Pure class: 13 - 21.

As the first half came to a close Big Nathan got involved with the Cambridge kingpin Darren Fox. This wasn't handbags. Yellow for Fox, Red for Hannay.

The second half started with G Bell sneaking back on, but the ref spotted him and made him wait another two minutes. Back at 14 men aside, Jersey were dominant and twice within five minutes Guy Thommo burst through the home defence to give Mikey two conversions in front of the posts. Guy was on fire, too hot for Cambridge to handle, and it was 13 - 35.

Fox came back on to make it 15 v 14 and the locals seemed to cheer up, but Jersey's defence remained solid. The forwards repelled most of the Cambridge attacks before the hosts could get out of their own half, and when they did break out Daws, Donny, Bish and Maggsie and put in saving tackles.

After 10 minutes of good Cambridge pressure they knocked on in midfield. All 15 of them stopped but Copsey was alive to the advantage and charged forward, supported by big Jim and a few other forwards who combined to put Daws into the corner for a great team try. 13 - 40.

Jersey were rampant: Stevie, Charlie and Donny were all stopped just a yard short of the try line, but the strain was starting to show and a number of replacements were needed, in fact all five were used and fitted in seamlessly. The machine rolled on.

Mylo took a knock and was down for a long time ( maybe inspecting the turf ), but a couple of minutes later he was again on the ground, this time over the Cambridge line following a powerful drive from the Jersey forwards. Mikey did the honours. 13 - 47.

Cambridge were now shell-shocked and with the game coming to a close Tommy Turner put Mikey in for his now obligatory try, despite having two men clinging to his back. He then got up, dusted himself down, and kicked the conversion over from the touchline. Superb. 13 - 54.

Man-of-the-match is a hard call, all 20 who played were awesome, Mikey scoring over 20 points for the second week running, but my 'Top Man' vote has to go to Thommo, the 'Guy' is on fire at the moment: pace, power and precision.

It was a privilege to witness this performance and if Jersey ever play better than this, I hope I am watching!