Championship: Jersey Reds beat Cornish Pirates 15-5 to go second

Jersey director of rugby Harvey Biljon was a coach at Cornish Pirates before joining the island side

Jersey Reds moved up to second in the Championship after a hard-fought 15-5 win over Cornish Pirates.

In a hard-fought first half, Jersey finally broke the deadlock with a penalty try just before the interval as Danny Cutmore was sent to the sin bin.

Wesley White went over to reward early second-half pressure to make it 12-0 before Sam Leeming added a penalty.

Pirates had Shae Tucker sin-binned for an offside before Robin Wedlake crossed for a consolation for the visitors.

The islanders leapfrog their Cornish opponents by a point in the table and are two behind leaders Ealing.

"What an attritional game and I think a thoroughly deserved victory, but one we had to battle really hard for," Reds director of rugby Harvey Biljon told BBC Radio Jersey.

"It wasn't about taking scores necessarily, it was just building that pressure through 39 minutes of the first half and finally in the last minute we went and got that score, which was a big moment.

"We're going through a huge amount of adversity at the moment, the number of injuries we've got, and that victory comes down to how hard the medical team are working, the coaches are working, the squad - not the 23 on the park today but the rest of the players - the way they're preparing during the week in training, that's making the difference."

The Pirates' loss ended a run of five successive victories and was just their second defeat of the season.

"I think Jersey were worthy winners," Pirates joint head coach Alan Paver told BBC Radio Cornwall.

"There were a dozen key moments in that game and they came out on top.

"We've got to learn around how we handled the game tactically, but I do believe they were worthy winners.

"That said we came back strongly at the end and I did feel we were in a position to grab a bonus point, but it wasn't meant to be."