National Sevens
     
Home Page

Meet our 'Backs'

Meet our 'Forwards'

New Team Members

The Coach

Jackals Noticeboard

National Sevens

Jackals Contacts

Favorite Links

Our Sponsors

  
Not bad for our first time out!
The Guernsey Jackals, the only full contact women's rugby team in the Channel Islands, made their debut appearance at the National Sevens Tournament in Southampton over the Jubilee weekend. More than 50 women's teams took part this year, ranging from those in the Premier Division down to Division V, with the Jackals being the only newcomers to the event.
The Team
Fiona Drape (Prop)
Jo Hamon (Hooker)
Emma Rayson (Prop)
Debbie Reynolds (Scrum Half)
Adele Langlois (Fly Half)
Jemma Bailey (Inside Centre)
Linda Johnson (Outside Centre)
Reserves
Emma Church (Forward)
Sarah Walsh (Back)
Kate Brehaut (Back)
Julie Vickerman (Forward/Back)
The First Day - Sunday 2nd June 2002
The Jackals were drawn in a league which included Clifton II along with Lichfield, Hove, Milton Keynes and Deal Wanderers. Once each team had played the others in their league, the top two were to go through to the knockout for the Cup, the teams placed third and fourth in the knockout for the Plate and the bottom teams were to go into the Shield. The Jackals first game was against Deal Wanderers.

Bearing in mind that this was the first game the team had ever played the team performed brilliantly against a more experienced and bigger side. From the moment Guernsey won the toss Deal were pinned down in their own 22 for the majority of the first half. Within the first minute Guernseys winger Linda Johnson went clean over the touch line with a try setup by forward Jo Hamon after an impressive display of handling skills from the rest of the team. Guernsey kept the pressure on with some great defensive tackles going in and were well in front when the half time whistle blew. In the second half Guernsey again outplayed their opponents, helped by the excellent scrummaging by the forwards and center Jemma Bailey notching up her first try, and despite a try by scrum half Debbie Reynolds being disallowed, the Jackals won comfortably by 26 points to 0.

Guernseys second game was against Clifton II, currently playing in Division II South West, who won the Plate at the National Sevens last year. This was a hard game and Guernsey put up a good fight against formidable opponents who had 3 England A team players and 1 Scotland player. Guernsey did well to keep the score line as low as they did and turned out to be the highest point scorers against Clifton IIs in their league. The final score was 38-7 to Clifton.

The third and fourth games were against Hove and Lichfield who currently play in Division II London and the Premier I Division respectively. Again these were hard fought games and even the referees commented on the good performance by the Guernsey side. The captain Adele Langlois proved her versatility as she took over the role of scum half against Lichfield in order to rest Debbie Reynolds who was suffering from an ankle injury. The full time scores were 35-5 to Hove and 49-7 to Lichfield.

The final game was against Milton Keynes and the Jackals were determined to end the day on a high which they did convincingly despite losing one of their key players, Julie Vickerman, with a knee injury. Their game plan of passing the ball out to the wing as quickly as possible paid off with Linda Johnson making the most of the great teamwork by scoring 5 tries, and following up with 4 conversions to leave the score 33-5 to Guernsey. This final win put Guernsey 4th in their league which meant that they were through to the knockout round of the Plate the following day.
The Knockout for the 'Plate' - Monday 3rd June 2002
Guernsey were unfortunately drawn against a very strong side in the first knockout round for the Plate - Newcastle University - who are currently top of the University League.

Despite Guernseys best efforts Newcastle triumphed and went through to the next round leaving Guernsey out of the running - until next year! Newcastle, however, were themselves taken out in the semi finals.