JERSEY rugby has kicked off the 2025/26 season in red hot form, as the women's team backed up the men's sizzling start by commencing the new NC 1 South East season with a commanding 33-14 win over Portsmouth Valkyries Ladies at CoinShares Park on Sunday.
Georgina Ruellan proved the star of the day, earning the Player of the Match award following a hat-trick of tries to start the season.
"The game was really good fun," said Ruellan post game. "We had lots of newbies playing, especially in the back line and they all had outstanding games.
"It was so good to be back out with the team in better than ever form. The team has really gelled brilliantly with the inclusion of the new players coming in and it has been a really good vibe at training and that showed on the pitch as well, which is extremely pleasing."
Jersey captain Katie De La Cloche was brimming with pride at full time, saying: "It feels really good to seal the win today. With it being a new season, we didn't know much about what we would be facing, and we ourselves haven't played together as a team since May, so there were a lot of unknowns coming in.
"We just wanted to make sure that, regardless of how the other team played, that we kept our shape, tried to play as a team and make sure we implement as much as possible from what we've been working on in training.
"I think we did a good job at pulling that off, it wasn't quite the perfect performance, but for the first game to get our first win, I'm really happy with it."
Match Report
Hosting their first game of the season, Jersey were the faster out of the blocks and applied the majority of the pressure from the off. That pressure nearly paid off after 14 minutes when Molly Büsel broke through, but a last-ditch tackle brought her down just shy of the try line.
Just two minutes later, a powerful Jersey scrum resulted in n opportunity to score, but the pass was wayward and the chance went begging.
The first try of the season eventually came on 18 minutes, thanks to Nicole Rodrigues-Magalhaes. Emily Duncan broke the line, zig-zagging her way past several players before off-loading to Rodrigues-Magalhaes who crossed the line. The conversion was taken by Duncan, who found the middle of the posts in excellent fashion from a tight angle.
The visitors rallied from then on, enjoying a sustained period of dominance in the game for the first time, which resulted on them bringing the game level after 25 minutes.
As Portsmouth surged forwards, that score could have been doubled just past the half hour mark but for a superb last-ditch tackle from Lucy Kendrick.
Momentum swung just short of half time, as one of the Portsmouth players received medical attention for an injury to her shoulder.
Jersey took full advantage of the break to regain their composure and stole the lead on the brink of half time, this time Ella Vieira the scorer powering over the white line, expertly converted again by Duncan to give the hosts a 14-7 lead into the break.
The home side returned after the break with renewed vigor, extending their lead immediately after the restart thanks to the destructive Georgina Ruellan. The try scoring machine got straight back into her flow from previous seasons, bursting through the line and beating the final tackle to score the team's third and her first try of the new season, which was duly converted again by Duncan.
Portsmouth continued to push, however the defensive unit of the hosts looked well organized. Over the next 20 minutes, several attempts were made on the Jersey try line, but all were thwarted.
The visitors eventually got their reward on 67 minutes, their powerful scrum half eventually crossing the white lined for a deserved score, although the tight conversion was sent wide, the score now at 21-12.
Heading into the final ten minutes, Portsmouth were continuing to look for a way through, but the superb Ruellan put the game to bed on 72 minutes. Running through to collect a pin-point kick from the excellent Duncan, speeding away from the hapless Portsmouth defence for her second score.
Ruellan rounded off an excellent individual and team performance with her third try in the dying embers, once again turning on the after burners to break through the line and seal her hat-trick. Ruellan took the conversion herself, but she hit the bar for a slightly anti-climactic end to a hard-earned by deserved 33-12 victory.
De La Cloche was particularly keen to emphasize her team's improvements on their set piece play, continuing: "We practice our set pieces a lot, especially the back players coming off the back of our scrums and line outs.
"Having Georgina [Ruellan] as well is such a bonus, she's a fantastic back with those legs and she scored a brilliant hat-trick today.
"We know if we can get it right in the forwards and give the backs that platform and that space to run, then we can be lethal against any team.
"To secure three tries exactly off that plan was amazing, but also using those 'pick and go' passes close to the try line to score as well, the two forwards tries we scored today were basically from those moves and those are key parts of our game that came together really well."
The skipper admitted that although this was a solid start to the season, they want to use this as a stepping stone to build on.
"Yes, of course we're happy with the win, but we want to build on that performance. We'll be looking at things that actually didn't go to plan and go back to the drawing board in training and try and iron some of those things out.
"We know there are key areas we still need to improve on, but we know we will improve in these areas throughout the season and today was a good start."
De La Cloche also took the time to thank her home supporters, concluding: "Thank you to everyone who came out to support us, getting to play at CoinShares Park on this amazing pitch with our home fans is always such a privilege, the girls absolutely love it and it's always amazing to get a win here.
"We know not every women's rugby team gets the quality of facilities that we have here and it's not something we take for granted.
"I feel it's a real statement for us to prove that actually women can play rugby, even though we're amateurs, it's a good game to come and watch. We want to grow that momentum and that support across the Island and throughout the UK and beyond."
Jersey RFC Women are next back in action next Sunday 5 October, away at Aylesford Bulls Ladies.
Jersey RFC Women's squad
[1-15] Nicole Rodrigues-Magalhaes, Ella Vieira, Morgan Carter, Ava Byrne, Emilie Langlands, Abbie Syvret, Katie De La Cloche (c), Kerry Bisson-Mercury, Bethan Hughes, Emily Duncan, Molly Büsel, Gemma Lowe, Georgina Ruellan, Kellie Le Brocq, Lucy Kendrick