Why Jersey boys can bring house down on Saturday
➤ Three Wales players and an England coach honed their skills in the Championship with the St Peter-based club
When they were introduced off the bench together to turn things around for Wales against Scotland two weeks ago, scrum-half Kieran Hardy and fly-half Callum Sheedy rekindled a partnership which dates back longer than many realised.
Hardy, who is set to start for Wales on Saturday against England, and Sheedy were first paired together for Jersey Reds in the RFU Championship five years ago. For Hardy, unwanted by the Scarlets before kick-starting his career in Jersey, it has been some rise.
“They had a great relationship straight away,” Harvey Biljon, the Jersey Reds director of rugby, says of the half-back combination.
“It was the 2016-17 season when we reached the British and Irish Cup final, and both of them played a big part in that. We beat London Irish in the semi-final ahead of the final against Munster. It’s a pity we couldn’t come home with the silverware but I’m sure both of them learnt from that experience, playing knockout rugby.”
Sheedy played more than 15 games for Jersey on loan from Bristol, a route also taken by Wales lock Will Rowlands from Wasps. Factor in England prop Harry Williams’s time at Jersey before he joined Exeter Chiefs and that Jersey’s backs coach Ed Robinson has been working with England since January, and there is a strong connection between the Championship club and this weekend’s Six Nations fixture.
Compared to Sheedy and Rowlands, Hardy’s arrival at Jersey was a slightly different story. A Wales Under-20 scrum-half alongside current Wales rival Tomos Williams, Hardy left Scarlets struggling for game time and was playing for Carmarthen Quins in Wales’s Principality Premiership when he was spotted by Biljon. Two successful seasons with Jersey followed, with Hardy returning to Scarlets in 2018 and then making his Wales debut last autumn. His time in Jersey proved to be the making of Hardy, not just on the field but crucially off it as well. “I’m probably oneeyed, but I always felt he had the raw materials to play for Wales,” explains Biljon. “It was giving him that opportunity, to give him that playing time, that rugby awareness, being in those situations where he had to think about being a key general on the field, helping with the decisions and communication – what’s the weather doing, what’s the referee doing, what’s the situation on the scoreboard, what’s the tempo like in the game – all those things you get from experience and being in different pressure situations.
“This is not so much rugby related, but one of the real positive things about Jersey which makes it unique is that, I know it’s only a halfhour flight from the mainland, but it’s the first time a lot of these young guys are away from home. They need to find that life balance between staying focused on their rugby and looking after themselves – doing their own cooking, washing, nutrition.
“They grow up as individuals and as men, because they’re fending for themselves.
“That plays a big part. Most clubs on the mainland, mum and dad are not far away. I mean this in the nicest way, but here they have to grow up.”
Hardy always possessed a natural instinct for the try line, with the hard work at Jersey going into his physical development and improving his distribution.
The amount of in-game experience he enjoyed, however, seems priceless, as can so often be the case for young players, highlighting the importance of the Championship and the opportunity it provides for their development.
Rowlands, set to join Dragons next season from Wasps having been handed his first cap by Wayne Pivac, has always stood out at 6ft 8in, but it was only after his time with Jersey that he returned to Wasps to make his Premiership debut.
Biljon explains: “For Will, clearly he’s a physical presence. You could see he had that athletic ability, that drive. It was about transferring that on to the rugby field, into a game situation, how to best utilise those strengths of his. And learning the game again – not learning about rugby, but the feel of it, the pressures.”
Robinson, meanwhile, is continuing to soak up each week with England, having worked as interim skills coach with the national side during this year’s Six Nations following Eddie Jones’s invitation.
“Ed is working hard, thoroughly enjoying the experience at the same time, has lots of ideas to bring back to Jersey, which is a great positive. Knowing Ed, he’ll want to be contributing, too.”
Now a staple of the Championship after winning promotion more than eight years ago, Biljon adds that watching former Jersey players excel at the top of the sport has been immensely satisfying.
“It’s very rewarding, to see guys who had been out on the pitch at St Peter a few years later getting their opportunity at the elite level of the game. It’s brilliant.”