Championship: Jersey romp to record win at Nottingham

Jersey full-back Bell continued his fine early season form with two more tries for the islanders

Jersey ran in five tries as they beat previously unbeaten Nottingham to record their biggest win since being promoted to the Championship.

Early tries from full-back Tommy Bell (2) and centre Drew Locke put Jersey in control, but Will Maisey's kicking kept the deficit to 22-12 at half-time.

Mark Foster and Nick Haining then scored after the break to ensure the visitors' first win of the campaign.

Jersey finished with 14 men after prop Nacho Lancuba was sin-binned late on.

Nottingham had gone into the game on the back of wins over Plymouth Albion and Bedford, but they were soon behind against a Jersey side who looked bright right from the off.

With little over a minute gone, Bell grabbed his first converted try, but two Maisey penalties narrowed the gap to a single point in a lively opening spell which also saw Nottingham scrum-half Sean Romans forced off injured.

Bell's second, in the corner after he chased onto and collected his own kick, re-established the advantage for the visitors before Locke's score by the posts completed a sparkling first 20 minutes for Jersey.

Two further penalties from fly-half Maisey made sure that the hosts were still in contention at the break but Jersey were not about to let a second-half lead slip away for the third weekend in a row.

Bell's second successful penalty of the afternoon, soon after the restart, kept the islanders' momentum going before 31-year-old winger Foster showed strength to power round the side of a ruck and ground the ball for the bonus-point-winning try.

Jersey were not done yet though and, just three minutes later, were celebrating a fifth try inside the hour, working the ball along the line nicely for fit-again flanker Haining to ground in the left corner.

Bell's conversion made the final score 39-12, with the 27 point gap Jersey's biggest ever winning margin in the second-tier of English rugby.

Nottingham: Robinson; O'Neill, Styles, Munro, Hough; Maisey, Romans; Ma'afu, Malton, Holford; Freeman, Montagu; Calladine, Wilson (capt), Grant.

Replacements: Carey, Vickers, Cooper, Everard, Smit, Knight, Venus.

Jersey: Bell; Foster, Locke, Robling, Burroughs; Bentley, Griffiths; Lancuba, Garcia-Veiga, Williams; Phillips, Rae (capt); Haining, Hodson, Noone.

Replacements: Harris, Herriot, Markham, Kaho, Pointer, McCrea, Dudley.

Attendance: 1,389.