Jersey Review

It was an early start for the touring party with a 5am departure from Rovers. 19 Rovers made the long trip to the beautiful channel island of Jersey for the fixture. Most players made the meet point and departed for Liverpool airport. One player was collected on the A19 and one player went against the core value of Teamwork to make his own way to Liverpool on the Friday evening to avoid the early Saturday morning departure. This player was then reminded at every opportunity how he was selfish and didn’t have the team at heart. Shame on David Grand for leaving his team mates like he did.

The first stop was Wolviston Services for a MacDonald’s and a chance to rub the sleep out of our eyes. It wasn’t long before we were on the road again. The card school started and a member of the party lost and tried to claw it back by betting on live basketball online. As the sun began to rise spirits were high as Liverpool airport approached. Upon arrival to the airport the bus was left in immaculate condition thanks to the lads putting all their rubbish in a bag for life that was on the bus. Little did they know that this bag for life was actually Darren Smith’s kit bag and his gear was now covered in coffee and cider dregs!

The airport check in went smoothly apart form a suspect package needing to be transferred from the hand luggage to the kit bag. One player hadn’t washed their shorts and socks and didn’t want to cross contaminate his best going out gear so wrapped the dirty items in Clingfilm making it look somewhat suspicious.

There were several nervous fliers and with a strong rumour of a propeller plane there were a few drinks downed in the airport. Turned out to be a standard aircraft. The flight was uneventful. 55 minutes up and down. Landed in a wet, over cast, cold Jersey. Chris left his jaeger on the plane and he wasn’t leaving the airport until he had it back with him, after all it was a 25ml single shot bottle.

Bus was on hand to collect the tourist party and off we went. Tribal elder, Tony Church, organised the bus to take the squad direct to the Hotel De Normandie. It would have been a nice drive and a sightseeing opportunity if visibility wasn’t down to 100 meters due to the inclement weather. Tony Church hadn’t planned on the hotel not allowing us to check in until 2.00pm. It wasn’t a totally wasted journey as it gave Hopkins a chance to sign his “International Waiver” form. We got back on the bus and off to the Royals rugby club.
The Royals Rugby Club is a small community, social rugby club. With tidy changing facilities attached to a small club house it was similar in size to maybe somewhere like Houghton Rugby Club. It was great to catch up with former Rover Brian Foreman who had been instrumental in organising the fixture. Brian had been informing the Rovers party that the Royals often struggle for players….well not on Saturday as half the island turned up to play for them. Rovers having 16 fit players were going to be up against it, especially with the average age being 30 something, and half to team suffering from jet lag.

David Grand was the Royals best player in the warm up dropping everything that came his way and realised he was not very good at getting lifted in the line out.

Rovers lined up:
Hopkins, Coutts The Pace, Frankie, Lilley, Robinson, Pinky, Power, Cushlow, Smith S, Smith D, Saint, Grand, Charters, Armstrong.
Finishers: Tony Church.

The game kicked off in terrible condition with the constant rain making handling difficult. The Royals were certainly up for it with a score within the first few minutes. They looked fit and energetic and Rovers thought they were in for a long afternoon. But the Rovers players rallied and hit back with some good tries of their own and went into the half time break with a lead. Carl Robinson was controlling proceedings from 10 and Lilley finished off some good moves. Two players who certainly retired form rugby too soon. Frankie had Foreman in his back pocket and the forwards functioned well as a pack with Sainty prominent in the line out and making a number of tackles.

Royals had the luxury of changing almost their full starting line-up at half time. Those fresh legs were to prove the difference between the teams as they clawed their way back into the game despite some resilient defending by Rovers. Well, apart from Lilley who invited the Royals player to score and moved out of the way of the tackle (something’s never change). Sportingly Brian Foreman joined his old team mates for the second half and he was still the Royals best player. Maybe the highlight of the game was the introduction of the South African flyer, Tony Church. Maybe he should have been introduced earlier and Rovers may have won…who knows but he took the field to the loudest cheer of the day. The game finished with Jersey scoring the last try to make the final score 37 – 32 to The Royals

A very competitive game played in good spirits, in atrocious conditions. Team photos done and off to get changed and sample the delights St Hellier had to offer.

Hospitality of the host club was excellent with pulled pork sandwiches for tea. Beer Pong and killer pool helped build Anglo/Jersey relations. Formal presentation of club ties and plaques were completed by both captains. Actually Rovers captain The Pace didn’t get the chance to make the presentation as Ste Smith took over. This was despite The Pace writing a speech and had been practicing it with Lynne all week. So plenty of disappointment for The Pace. Liam Armstrong was voted Man of The Match for Rovers. Andrew Lilley D**k of the Day. As the evening’s hospitalities at the rugby club came to an end the bus arrived to collect the players. Once again the bag for life was mistaken as a bin and Darren Smith had to empty a load of empty cans and dregs form his kit bag. And somehow the handles had been cut off.

Quick change and out in St Hellier. Straight in to an Irish bar for a sing song with the live entertainment. Then a lovely guided tour of the town, in freezing stormy conditions. First home was Pinky. He executed the classic back door job and left drinking partner The Pace with two pints. Pinky was tucked up in bed by 8.30pm. That was after he carried out some plumbing work to take the U-bend off from under the sink to try and unblock the vomit he had done in the sink. He also failed to turn off his 4am alarm from the previous day and The Pace was grateful of the wake up call that early. Someone placed kebab meat in Pinky’s shoes for a morning present as a punishment for the wakeup call. Most others were home for match of the day. The early start and jet lag was cited as an excuse for being lightweights. A few of the younger party members lasted longer although this could be a consequence of them not knowing where we were staying and walking across the island aimlessly looking for a hotel that they couldn’t recognise anyway. Steve Smith and Danny Charters managed a romantic late night spa in the hotels facilities.

Sunday couldn’t have been a more contrasting day to Saturday with bright sunshine, clear blue skies and a crisp autumnal feel to the day. Breakfast was destroyed by the squad and check out complete. Hair of the dog was needed to clear away the grogginess and off to Jersey Reds to watch some veteran’s rugby. Jersey Reds are in the RFU Championship and they host an annual veterans 10s tournament. Teams from the UK plus a handful of French sides made the tournament look like an attractive competition to enter. Time for a few drinks before the walk to the airport. The airport was only supposed to be a few minutes’ walk according to Tyrone. Turns out it was about an hour hike to the entrance. Time for a quick pint and onto the flight.

The bus journey back home was as eventful as ever. Some serious cheating at chase the ace and Sainty “tripping” down the embankment when the bus stopped for a comfort break. But the party arrived home safe and sound bang on time.

The weekend will be hailed as a great success. Massive credit to Tony Church who organised the fixture and the transport etc and it went off without a hitch. It was a competitive game for both sides so the Royals will be happy to get a fixture. A big thank you to the Royals who welcomed us to their club and looked after us well. A number of their players gamely turned out for Rovers when injuries crept in. Jersey seemed a lovely place when the sun shone and the nightlife was lively. If any clubs are thinking of going over for a game we would recommend they do. There is talk of this being a regular event. The team that turned out deserve a pat on the back. A number of veterans pulled on the shirt and it would be great to see them pull the shirt on again soon for a vets/3rd team fixture.

This was a weekend that will go down in history. As far as anyone was aware this was the first Rovers side to play in Jersey and certainly the first to take on the Royals. Hopefully this will be the first of many trips to the channel island.