A good tight affair ensued, but ultimately St Jacques came on top on a very windy day at the KGV. The performance from Jon Bell’s St Jacques side oozed pride and determination from the very first blow of referee Colin Vaudin’s whistle, and after securing a good victory Head Coach Jon Bell stated his joy at the performance.

“If you want to see a team performance, that was it. They have been very hungry for that, and have worked hard in recent weeks to earn this victory. Hopefully we have been able to put our troubles behind us”.

The game started not as the home side and their supporters would have liked, as after a few minutes Portsmouth were to open the scoring with winger Jamie Towlson touching down following a move which started on the opposite side of the pitch. The visitors missed the conversion.

However St Jacques were not to be denied for long, as speedy winger Kiwi Callum Hayes finished off a flowing move which moved from left to right before Hayes crossed the whitewash wide out. Tom Chamberlains attempt at goal was unsuccessful, with the weather conditions making kicking difficult.

Both teams traded possession with neither taking advantage, before the 30 minute mark, when Portsmouth crossed in the left-hand corner. The visitors had a lineout inside the St Jacques 22 which they brought down and looked to drive for the line. The maul collapsed, but not before Fooks spotted a hole in the St Jacques defence on the short side, and ran in to score a converted try.

With Jacques up against the stiff wind in the first half, the half time turnaround couldn’t have come any quicker. Although just before the break Bjorn Van Der Kammen narrowed the gap. The big second row who was redeployed at no 8 on Saturday had one of his best games in a St Jacques jersey in some time, was ever present in every scoring move for St Jacques and was regularly making strong carries and tackles. After a tap penalty he caught the visitors napping and charged over for a try. With the wind against him Chamberlain missed the conversion, but the home side went into the halftime break happy, and knowing they had the benefit of the wind in the second half.

The second period was mainly all St Jacques, with the forwards bossing the breakdowns and making yards regularly. Prop Ben Le Noury was playing superbly, making regular strong carries into the heart of the Portsmouth defence, and also scrumming excellently. His carries were sucking in several Portsmouth defenders, which was allowing fly-half Dave Haimes to distribute well and bring his strong backs into the game even more.

St Jacques then earned a penalty try, after Portsmouth brought down Van Der Kammen without the ball, as he aimed to gather a loose ball on the Portsmouth 5m line. Referee Vaudin consulted his touch judges and awarded the try which Chamberlain converted.

St Jacques then secured victory with possibly the move of the match. After several phases with the forwards, Fly-half Haimes quickly switched direction to attack the shortside, he passed excellently to Van Der Kammen before the big No 8 demonstrated his brilliant distribution skills to perfectly time a pass to the onrushing winger Robbie Titterington. The wide man beat several defenders with excellent feet and great pace to race in from roughly 40m out to secure the victory.

Bell had time to introduce all of his replacements bench, including a debut for Guernsey Touch player Dom Page. The score did not change as St Jacques closed the game out. The celebrations then began, as it was clear to see how much the result meant to the players and all the supporters.

After the match fly-half Dave Haimes was awarded man of the match by the visiting Portsmouth players.