Biljon: Reds must go again

Biljon: Reds must go again

Although not getting carried away, Jersey’s head coach was impressed with a display that saw his side up to fourth in the Championship table, a position held after Doncaster Knights’ loss to Richmond on Saturday and the postponement of the Yorkshire Carnegie v Ealing Trailfinders game yesterday.

‘We had spoken all week about maintaining our focus, staying professional and backing up the result we’d achieved at Bristol,’ he said. ‘There was a danger it could have got loose and Scottish showed they have threatening players, but we didn’t get rattled by the tries they scored or the opportunities we missed.

Using crossfield kicks to stretch their opponents had been a tactic worked on in midweek, Biljon said.

‘Credit to the players, they’d seen an opportunity, worked on it in training and then translated it into the match. We had a strong forward platform, and that enabled us to play attacking rugby.’

Wing Jason Worrall, scoring a hat-trick within one half of a match for the first time in his career, was credited by Biljon for the way he’d developed his game during his first season as a full-time professional, and Worrall himself was delighted with the game.

‘The boys worked really hard in the middle of the field and that meant there was space out wide, and it’s exciting when you can throw the ball around in those situations,’ he said.

Scottish player-coach Jake Sharp said: ‘It was a tough night – Jersey are the in-form team and we’re very frustrated. We tried to play with tempo, but allowed them to slow the game down, and they are very clinical.’

Having seen his side stretch their unbeaten league run away from home to seven matches, Biljon challenged his squad to maintain their intensity on home turf, with back-to-back games coming up at Stade Santander International – the league encounter with Rotherham Titans this Saturday, and the Good Friday B&I Cup quarter-final against Doncaster Knights.

  • See pages 28 and 29 in today’s Final Whistle
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