Plucky Vikings come up just short against the Blues

Whilst in it ended in defeat, they produced an outstanding performance and came up just 5 points short against a team who play two league levels above them, and laid down a marker about what this young side could achieve in the future.

The Blues ‘A’s’ compete in the Zoo Sports Shield Division Three, which is a competition for strong club second XV’s in the UK, and Jersey Reds Athletic play in the same league structure, albeit they are in Division One. Coming into the match they were second in their league and it was clearly visible why as they were a very well drilled side with some skilful and strong players.

Ray Smart, the Vikings head coach, has advocated this season that his side will need to play stronger opposition at a higher level to continue their development, and if nothing else the Vikings performance on Saturday proved they should be more than able to compete at this level. Smart echoed these views again after the final whistle.

“I am really proud of our guys today, we wanted to see if could compete at this level and after 20 minutes I was already convinced that we more than could. The result was not important today, however to take them that close was great and had there been a few more minutes on the clock we could well have won it.”

“I am confident playing against stronger teams will bring the best out of us, as it did today, and now we need to bring that intensity into our final two league matches before looking ahead to next season.”

The game got underway in front of a near 200 strong crowd, and it started at an intense pace as the visitors looked to put the Vikings under pressure from the off. When the Blues had the ball they moved it effectively around the pitch as they looked to stretch the black-and-yellows defence and sent their big runners repeatedly the slope looking to gain ground. The Vikings had little possession during the opening 10 minutes, but they defended resiliently and weathered the early Blues storm.

Brighton were the first to take the lead though, and it came from a moment of chance after the Vikings had started to build a foothold in the match and were enjoying periods of quality possession. The try came via an interception by the Blues winger after they kicked downfield, the kick was safely gathered but the fast onrushing kick chase caught young Vikings wing Phil Le Noury by surprise as he looked to pass the ball in field and the visitors incepted to have a free run to the line, before converting.

The Vikings could well have dropped their heads at this point, but in fact they raised their game and soon earned their first try. Ray Smart introduced the experienced Darrin Bellingham from the bench, and the loose-head prop made an excellent impact with very strong carries helping to get the Vikings over the gain line. They were now camped on the Blues line and made repeated attempts to break over and on two occasions did but both were adjudged to have been held up by referee Dave Mahoney. Eventually however pressure told and Bellingham drove over from short range to bring the scores level after Leon Collenette converted.

The game was evenly balanced as the teams headed into the halftime break, and the result could of swung either way in the second half. As the game got back underway once again the Blues came out hard for the Vikings, moving the ball well around the pitch and creating space.

The Vikings had to produce their best defence to keep the Blues out and in the most part did well. Brighton had a well organised maul though, and after a home penalty they kicked to the corner. From the resulting lineout they drove over to score and retake the lead, the conversion was missed.

Brighton then extended their lead in the match to 10 points with another unconverted try, and any chance of victory at this point looked unlikely for the Vikings. But the big crowd had something to cheer about soon, as after a good period of pressure Vikings fly-half Leon Collenette went over the line for what appeared to be a try, but once again referee Mahoney adjudged the ball to be held up. In the phases that followed Brighton eventually turned the ball over and kicked clear.

The Vikings were not done however and continued to work tirelessly into the dying minutes to find a vital score. The eventually got this through replacement fullback Dave Davison in the top left hand corner under the clubhouse. The try may have been scored by Davison but was created by scrum-half Lucas Barker, he cleverly threw a dummy pass from the base of a ruck on the visitors 5m line, before unleashing a bullet pass behind the onrushing Blues defence to Davison. Collenette just missed with the conversion attempt as his teammates rushed to receive the kick-off, but referee Mahoney blew for full-time.

It was a very impressive effort from the Vikings, who can hold their heads up high after suffering such a narrow loss to the best opposition to grace the KGV turf in a number of years.

A Myers, J Mroch, B Paul, T Creed, J Smith, M Smith, A Lock, J Regnard ©, L Barker, L Collenette, P Le Noury, C Gladstone, C Cahill, C Le Prevost, C Sullivan Replacements: D Bellingham, T Bray, D Harvey, C Denton, D Davison, K Creber