Tonbridge Juddians were second best at Guernsey on Saturday as the hosts ran out 29-24 winners in National League 2 East.

The defeat was Judds’ seventh of the season, although things looked good when they led 14-8 after 25 minutes, Howard Packman and Charlie Self touching down with Tom White converting both scores.

Those efforts came after Ciaran McGann’s seventh-minute penalty for Guernsey, followed by a try five minutes later by Hugo Culverhouse to put the islanders 8-0 up.

Culverhouse and McGann were at it again three minutes before the break, and a Tom Teasdale effort, followed by another conversion, left Judds eight points in arrears at the interval.

McGann joined the list of home try scorers, converting his own effort, to leave TJs with an even bigger deficit just four minutes into the second half and while Tonbridge fought back with a second try from Packman and a bonus-point score on 62 minutes from Alex Brown, 18 minutes was not enough time to make further inroads.

The loss leaves Tonbridge sixth in the standings ahead of Saturday’s game at home to Old Albanians (2.30pm).