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No sooner were the 2023/24 league fixtures out than Guildford Vets were making immediate enquiries (in a laudably-positive “we’re coming” style) and not long after that the 1st XV’s travel was all sorted for round 16 of Regional 2 South Central.
Hence a double-header is lined up for the final Saturday of January, with the visitors staying over until Sunday and planning to make it a good old-fashioned club tour. Should be a great day at the club, and a bit of a shot in the arm for Island hospitality businesses too after a long and in many cases dry month.
With the exception of the Siam Cup, it’s the first time that a visiting club have brought two teams over to play on the same weekend since Coventry arrived en masse in April 2019 (and included an All Black in their 2nd XV!).
After a week off, JRFC 1st XV will be looking to snap back into the groove and seeking to keep up their winning run and maintain their lead at the top of R2SC.
Landick’s Lines and team news
Head Coach Myles Landick is without a few regulars, such as Charlie Hubert, George Willmott and Ewan Davies, but hopes none of the absentees will be out for long and believes this leaves opportunities for other members of the squad.
Four ‘new’ faces come into the starting XV following the 66-43 win at Chichester two weeks ago, including Jenson Holmes into the back three for Hubert, as Eryk Swiech moves to full-back.
Tom Tilstone comes into the second row and the other changes are in the back row. Skipper Evan Whitson returns, taking the place of Jerry Sexton, who played in midweek for British Police in their 31-26 win against the Army, and Brian Njomba plays his first game since the autumn at no 8 in place of Willmott.
Also back in the frame are Joe Ridgway and Cameron Halliwell, who join Liam Rhodes on the bench.
Landick said: “We’ve got a few injuries, but there are a number of players, especially in the forwards, who’ve trained well and deserve their opportunities, and we’ve got a young exciting back-line.”
Considering work-ons for the squad approaching their third game since the festive break, Landick admitted defence had been a focus after the concession of 77 points in two games so far this month.
“We know we have the ability to put up a strong defensive effort, but we need to be more consistent,” he said. “We weren’t torn apart by Chichester, but there are things we’ve looked to address.”
JRFC (15-9, 1-8): Eryk Swiech; Sam Harvey, Tom Bulfin, Dom Mayo, Jenson Holmes; Aaron Penberthy, Max Harrington; George Thomas, Jack Macfarlane, Tom Wilson, Tom Tilstone, Nathan Thomas, Evan Whitson, Euan Spencer, Brian Njomba. Replacements: Joe Ridgway, Cameron Halliwell, Liam Rhodes.
Previous encounters – October 14th, 2023
At a rate of almost a point a minute, there was no shortage of entertainment at Broadwater when the sides met three months ago. The visitors were just ahead with a six-point lead at the break, but then pulled away to eventually win 47-29. George Willmott and Euan Spencer each bagged a brace of tries, with Anushan Elanco, Nathan Rogers and Max Harrington claiming one apiece and Scott van Breda landing three conversions and two penalties. Guildford continued to compete and were good value for their try bonus point.
Previous encounters – Back in the day
The 2002/03 season in London 3SW saw two tight away wins: the Reds in a 7-6 thriller at Broadwater, and Gees by 20-17 (a famous scoreline for an away win in 2003) on the Island.
The following season brought home wins, Jersey by 31-12 and Guildford by 38-16, with the Surrey boys promoted as champions at the end of the campaign with their loss at St Peter the lone blemish over the 18-game programme.
Two seasons later, by which point Jersey were up in London 2 South as well, narrow home wins were again the order of the day: 20-17 for Gees and 22-18 for the men in red.
2007/08 was the most recent season the clubs have met, with Jersey winning 20 and drawing one of their 22 games on the way to promotion via a play-off. This included a 50-7 home win in December, when Sam Tuia scored four of the eight Jersey tries, and another seven tries for the Island side in a 51-10 victory at Broadwater in the final game of the regular season in April.
Guildford RFC
The club celebrated their centenary two years ago. Originally just Guildford RFC, they merged with Old Guildfordians in 1946, but then unmerged seven years later, with Guildford moving to the current ground at Broadwater in 1953 and becoming Guildford and Godalming at the same time.
Another century brought another merger, with G&G and Guildfordians joining forces again in 2003 and the name reverting to just Guildford, with no sign of a seven-year itch in 2010, or since.
The club were at level seven when they first encountered JRFC in 2002/03, as detailed above, but for the past two decades have played their rugby at levels five or six.
There was a four-season stay in the higher tier from 2016 after a play-off win over Tring, ending with relegation at the end of the Covid-shortened season of 2019/20.
Last season in R2SC Guildford finished eighth, while so far this season they have won seven, lost seven and drawn one to currently lie fifth in the table.
January began with a 23-17 loss at Winchester, followed by a 21-7 home win over Newbury.
The club’s head coach is former England Sevens player Chris Cracknell, who also played 15-a-side rugby at the top two tiers for clubs including Cornish Pirates, Bath, Exeter Chiefs and Worcester Warriors, while backs coach is Tom Williams, who played more than 200 times for Harlequins between 2004 and 2015.
Parish Notices
Three JRFC sides will be in action this w/e, with a testosterone-fuelled double-header on home turf while the cats – sorry that should read JRFC Women – are away.
Guildford are bringing their Vets squad, which means a rare albeit very welcome outing for Jersey RFC’s Wanderers squad, kicking off at 11am and then settling into a bit of ‘tour social’ activity from lunchtime onwards.
Stevie O’Brien and Graham Bell both featured in the 2008 game and it’ll be interesting to see if the visitors have any grizzled survivors from back in the day.
JRFC Women started their 2024 fixture list with a hard-earned win at Beckenham last Sunday . Tries from and Georgie Ruellan, plus a conversion by Ashling Magner, set up a 17-5 win to maintain top spot in NC2 South-East (South).
It’s a quick turn-around for Simon le Moignan’s charges, as they travel to Beccehamians on Saturday, with kick-off at 12.30pm.
The great news for rugby supporters on the Island is that there’s loads of action coming up on home turf over the last three months of the season. Over the 11 Saturdays starting February 10th, there’ll be a home game on eight of them, with plenty of Guinness 6 Nations action also featuring on the menu.
Four of the home games are for the men, with league encounters against London Irish and Newbury, plus friendlies against Caldy (March 9th) and Chinnor (a recently-confirmed fixture for Saturday April 20th – a fortnight before the Siam Cup).
Meanwhile the women also have four home games lined up, entertaining Seaford on February 10th and Beccehamians two weeks later, followed by East Grinstead on March 2nd and finally Beckenham on April 6th.
Did someone mention the Siam? That’s right, it’s on the horizon, with kick-off times now fixed for four games in Guernsey on Saturday May 4th: Vets at 10.15am, 2nds at 11.45am, Women at 1.45pm and Men at 4.15pm.
Fixture info is available via the ‘Teams’ tabs on our website, jerseyrfc.rfu.club
Hence a double-header is lined up for the final Saturday of January, with the visitors staying over until Sunday and planning to make it a good old-fashioned club tour. Should be a great day at the club, and a bit of a shot in the arm for Island hospitality businesses too after a long and in many cases dry month.
With the exception of the Siam Cup, it’s the first time that a visiting club have brought two teams over to play on the same weekend since Coventry arrived en masse in April 2019 (and included an All Black in their 2nd XV!).
After a week off, JRFC 1st XV will be looking to snap back into the groove and seeking to keep up their winning run and maintain their lead at the top of R2SC.
Landick’s Lines and team news
Head Coach Myles Landick is without a few regulars, such as Charlie Hubert, George Willmott and Ewan Davies, but hopes none of the absentees will be out for long and believes this leaves opportunities for other members of the squad.
Four ‘new’ faces come into the starting XV following the 66-43 win at Chichester two weeks ago, including Jenson Holmes into the back three for Hubert, as Eryk Swiech moves to full-back.
Tom Tilstone comes into the second row and the other changes are in the back row. Skipper Evan Whitson returns, taking the place of Jerry Sexton, who played in midweek for British Police in their 31-26 win against the Army, and Brian Njomba plays his first game since the autumn at no 8 in place of Willmott.
Also back in the frame are Joe Ridgway and Cameron Halliwell, who join Liam Rhodes on the bench.
Landick said: “We’ve got a few injuries, but there are a number of players, especially in the forwards, who’ve trained well and deserve their opportunities, and we’ve got a young exciting back-line.”
Considering work-ons for the squad approaching their third game since the festive break, Landick admitted defence had been a focus after the concession of 77 points in two games so far this month.
“We know we have the ability to put up a strong defensive effort, but we need to be more consistent,” he said. “We weren’t torn apart by Chichester, but there are things we’ve looked to address.”
JRFC (15-9, 1-8): Eryk Swiech; Sam Harvey, Tom Bulfin, Dom Mayo, Jenson Holmes; Aaron Penberthy, Max Harrington; George Thomas, Jack Macfarlane, Tom Wilson, Tom Tilstone, Nathan Thomas, Evan Whitson, Euan Spencer, Brian Njomba. Replacements: Joe Ridgway, Cameron Halliwell, Liam Rhodes.
Previous encounters – October 14th, 2023
At a rate of almost a point a minute, there was no shortage of entertainment at Broadwater when the sides met three months ago. The visitors were just ahead with a six-point lead at the break, but then pulled away to eventually win 47-29. George Willmott and Euan Spencer each bagged a brace of tries, with Anushan Elanco, Nathan Rogers and Max Harrington claiming one apiece and Scott van Breda landing three conversions and two penalties. Guildford continued to compete and were good value for their try bonus point.
Previous encounters – Back in the day
The 2002/03 season in London 3SW saw two tight away wins: the Reds in a 7-6 thriller at Broadwater, and Gees by 20-17 (a famous scoreline for an away win in 2003) on the Island.
The following season brought home wins, Jersey by 31-12 and Guildford by 38-16, with the Surrey boys promoted as champions at the end of the campaign with their loss at St Peter the lone blemish over the 18-game programme.
Two seasons later, by which point Jersey were up in London 2 South as well, narrow home wins were again the order of the day: 20-17 for Gees and 22-18 for the men in red.
2007/08 was the most recent season the clubs have met, with Jersey winning 20 and drawing one of their 22 games on the way to promotion via a play-off. This included a 50-7 home win in December, when Sam Tuia scored four of the eight Jersey tries, and another seven tries for the Island side in a 51-10 victory at Broadwater in the final game of the regular season in April.
Guildford RFC
The club celebrated their centenary two years ago. Originally just Guildford RFC, they merged with Old Guildfordians in 1946, but then unmerged seven years later, with Guildford moving to the current ground at Broadwater in 1953 and becoming Guildford and Godalming at the same time.
Another century brought another merger, with G&G and Guildfordians joining forces again in 2003 and the name reverting to just Guildford, with no sign of a seven-year itch in 2010, or since.
The club were at level seven when they first encountered JRFC in 2002/03, as detailed above, but for the past two decades have played their rugby at levels five or six.
There was a four-season stay in the higher tier from 2016 after a play-off win over Tring, ending with relegation at the end of the Covid-shortened season of 2019/20.
Last season in R2SC Guildford finished eighth, while so far this season they have won seven, lost seven and drawn one to currently lie fifth in the table.
January began with a 23-17 loss at Winchester, followed by a 21-7 home win over Newbury.
The club’s head coach is former England Sevens player Chris Cracknell, who also played 15-a-side rugby at the top two tiers for clubs including Cornish Pirates, Bath, Exeter Chiefs and Worcester Warriors, while backs coach is Tom Williams, who played more than 200 times for Harlequins between 2004 and 2015.
Parish Notices
Three JRFC sides will be in action this w/e, with a testosterone-fuelled double-header on home turf while the cats – sorry that should read JRFC Women – are away.
Guildford are bringing their Vets squad, which means a rare albeit very welcome outing for Jersey RFC’s Wanderers squad, kicking off at 11am and then settling into a bit of ‘tour social’ activity from lunchtime onwards.
Stevie O’Brien and Graham Bell both featured in the 2008 game and it’ll be interesting to see if the visitors have any grizzled survivors from back in the day.
JRFC Women started their 2024 fixture list with a hard-earned win at Beckenham last Sunday . Tries from and Georgie Ruellan, plus a conversion by Ashling Magner, set up a 17-5 win to maintain top spot in NC2 South-East (South).
It’s a quick turn-around for Simon le Moignan’s charges, as they travel to Beccehamians on Saturday, with kick-off at 12.30pm.
The great news for rugby supporters on the Island is that there’s loads of action coming up on home turf over the last three months of the season. Over the 11 Saturdays starting February 10th, there’ll be a home game on eight of them, with plenty of Guinness 6 Nations action also featuring on the menu.
Four of the home games are for the men, with league encounters against London Irish and Newbury, plus friendlies against Caldy (March 9th) and Chinnor (a recently-confirmed fixture for Saturday April 20th – a fortnight before the Siam Cup).
Meanwhile the women also have four home games lined up, entertaining Seaford on February 10th and Beccehamians two weeks later, followed by East Grinstead on March 2nd and finally Beckenham on April 6th.
Did someone mention the Siam? That’s right, it’s on the horizon, with kick-off times now fixed for four games in Guernsey on Saturday May 4th: Vets at 10.15am, 2nds at 11.45am, Women at 1.45pm and Men at 4.15pm.
Fixture info is available via the ‘Teams’ tabs on our website, jerseyrfc.rfu.club
