While Guernsey held their hands up to a poor performance in their final home game of 2023 against Bury St Edmunds, they were much improved away to Sevenoaks on Saturday, yet came away with nothing as a late penalty for the hosts took the margin of victory to beyond the seven points that would have at least earned Jordan Reynolds’ men a losing bonus, which was arguably the least they deserved, but luck was against them.

‘We’re pretty disappointed with the result of the game, but we’re pretty happy with our performance – we performed really well for the most part, created a lot of opportunities. It was night and day compared to against Bury St Edmunds, which is one we want to forget about,’ said the Guernsey director of rugby.

‘We probably only let them in for one line-break in the whole game and attack-wise we were getting back to some of our better stuff, so the signs are good that we are getting back to where we should be.

‘So while we are disappointed with not getting anything out of the game, I cannot fault the effort the guys put in,’ Reynolds added.

Raiders got off to one of their better starts of the season with a good defensive set followed up by an early try scored by fullback Charlie Simmonds in the fifth minute. James Burger made a break and found Simmonds who went over.

‘We were talking in depth last week about areas we need to improve on, our mental game was a big part of that, and on Saturday our warm-up was excellent and we took that straight into the game,’ Reynolds said.

‘Sevenoaks had a few phases at the start of the game which we defended really well and then we had some phases which we managed to convert into a try.

‘We then had probably another couple of opportunities to score in that half, but unfortunately the ball went to ground.’

One of those chances going astray proved the catalyst for Sevenoaks taking a 7-5 lead into half-time as they responded with a converted try for Henry Galligan.

‘We had a really important moment about 15 minutes in when we were right on their line, we knocked the ball on and it resulted in a penalty for Sevenoaks at that scrum, then we gave away seven penalties in a row from which they eventually got a try,’ said Reynolds.

‘That was a big momentum shift to go from 5m from their line and then we walk them down the pitch due to indiscipline and they score.

‘Our discipline was not good enough on the day. I think we gave away 16 penalties to their eight. If we fix that, we beat Sevenoaks.’

The home side successfully converted a penalty in the opening moments of the second half, but the Raiders reply was swift as Tom Teasdale’s inside pass set up Ethan Smith for their second unconverted try.

However, the defining period of the game quickly followed as two injuries halted Guernsey’s momentum.

‘There was a 10-minute period when we lost Charlie Simmonds and Owen Thomas at the same time, so we had to make adjustments having lost our fly-half and our back-up 10, and they scored two tries in that spell.

‘They did not really threaten us after that, we regrouped and scored a third try and we had opportunities after that.

‘I think when you are lacking a bit in confidence, it is really tough to turn it around and while we did enough to win the game, maybe our current lack of confidence meant we didn’t convert those opportunities.’

Raiders’ third try came from Ciaran McGann, who added the conversion to bring them back within seven points, but Benjamin Adams slotted over a penalty 10 minutes from time to complete the scoring for the hosts.

‘Even the referee agreed with me afterwards that we were the better side for much of the game,’ Reynolds said.

‘It was an all-round strong performance and it is tough to say we played well and yet lost to Sevenoaks, but we have to take the small wins and I think we had probably six or seven contenders for man of the match,’ added the coach, who name-checked Burger, Hugo Culverhouse, Matt Creber, Dom Rice, Smith and Teasdale in those discussions.

Unfortunately, Simmonds, who also impressed, suffered a broken finger that is likely to sideline him for seven weeks.

However, Raiders now have a lengthy Christmas break before they return to action at home to Tonbridge Juddians on Saturday 13 January.

‘It is a bit of a double-edged sword because as a coach I would be keen to have a game next week to build on this performance, but the boys are understandably really keen for a break,’ Reynolds said.

‘They will all have their own programmes based around conditioning for the next couple of weeks – our conditioning has dropped a bit, but we have not had a training facility for nine weeks due to the weather, so it is understandable.

‘We will then get them back on 2 January and give them two really solid weeks to get them ready for TJs.

‘We have got 13 games left this season and we probably need to find six wins because the second relegation spot [after North Walsham] is likely between us, Worthing and Wimbledon, so we have to turn things around quickly in the new year.’