Greene King IPA Championship: Ampthill 14 Jersey Reds 29

Jersey secured the bonus-point try with the final play as they recorded their third win of the season.

The visitors were into the attack early on and after their initial efforts were repelled, Tom Williams burst up the wing to score from 35 metres with eight minutes on the clock.

An attritional period of play saw both sides unable to take their chances until a well-worked Ampthill move saw Will Foster cross in the corner and Louis Grimoldby add the extras to give his side the lead, 7-5.

The Reds weren’t behind for long, responding with a superb try that was made in Worcester, with loan signings Matti Williams and Scott Van Breda combing to devastating effect and the full-back haring to the line, 7-12.

It seemed Williams had scored a try of his own afterwards but the score was chalked off for a knock-on in the build-up, however the visitors were able to grab a third just before the break when prop Ciaran Parker followed a sprightly burst through the middle with a deft back-handed flick to Dan Barnes, who raced to the line from 15 metres out.

Brendan Cope’s second conversion made it 7-19 at half-time.

The first score of the second period looked important and it was the hosts who grabbed it through wing Will Brown after 53 minutes with the wing racing through to a kick ahead, 14-19.

With just the two exceptions, the Reds were consistently able to stifle most of the Ampthill attacking efforts and force errors, with the home side also responsible for the lions’ share of the penalty count.

With just under 10 minutes to go there was a kickable penalty just outside the 22 and Cope took the shot to stretch his side’s lead to eight points. And the Reds continued to press and eventually were able to work Barnes over for his second try, and the bonus point, with Cope adding the extras with the last kick for a final score of 14-29.

The result saw the Reds move up two places in the Championship table to seventh.