Guernsey 23 Andover 15
Saxon Safety sponsored Andover made the journey to the channel Islands at the weekend but left empty handed after a to say the least, ‘controversial’ call from a home touch judge.
The game was fairly even throughout and was always going to be tight finish after Andover had overcome a first half deficit to trail by a point going in to the last few minutes.
Rich Retallick was on target with an early penalty for Andover, but Guernsey struck two of their own in reply and added a converted try after a stream of penalties against the ‘All Blacks’ led to a yellow card for man of the match Sean Higgins.
Andover did not buckle though and just before the break came back with an outstanding try. A superb break from defence by Bryn Waite was taken on by the outstanding Stan North and he fed Harvey Maloney to provide an excellent finish to an end to end score.
The second half was also a very even affair. Andover took the lead with a Tom Erskine try created after hooker Jacob Demesi went close in the corner, with Retallick adding the conversion.
But with Demesi forced off, followed later in the half by both Erskine and Retallick, things did not look good for Andover. They regrouped however and especially at scrum time, where Nic Reed, Samson Earle and James Reeder were excellent, won a stream of penalties that should have led to a yellow card.
It was not forthcoming however and instead it was Andover who were given another, when Evan Roll was sent to the bin for a deliberate knock on.
Undaunted Andover defended bravely and with just moments left came the incident where they thought they had won it.
Callum Hollinshead made a wonderful interception on his own twenty-two as Guernsey pressed for the win and outpaced the defence to touch down under the posts where the referee awarded the score.
Andover celebrations were soon cut short however, by the intervention of a touch judge who said he had seen a shoulder charge three phases before the score.
The referee felt he had accept his decision, disallowed the try and awarded a penalty to Guernsey, and after yet another yellow card for Stan Pearson, Guernsey went over to snatch the win.
Afterwards Director of Rugby Andy Waite said ‘ We didn’t play particularly well today but the manner in which we had the game snatched away was hugely disappointing. We just need to get back to working to our systems, because all of our defeats have been very close run affairs and with a bit more composure we can turn them into wins.’