Guernsey will remain amateur despite step-up
You would imagine running a successful rugby club on a small island like Guernsey is challenging enough but it must be doubly complicated when your nearest neighbours and biggest rivals in life – let along rugby – are enjoying such a surge of success just over the water. The urge to keep up must be almost overwhelming.
But you would be wrong. Guernsey, although successful on their own terms, have no compelling desire to keep up with the Jersey Reds. Over the last 15 years they have climbed from Hampshire 1 to take their place in National League Two South where they will be competing this coming season.. but they are keeping it real.
“We are under no illusions what we are as a club at the limit of our capabilities,” says director of rugby Jordy Reynolds. “We are not a Jersey, fully-professional going toe-to-toe with the best Championship clubs. That’s not us, we don’t have the finances and that’s not the path we are taking.
“What we do want is a thriving community rugby club – men, women, vets, minis – on the island playing the very best rugby we can and that can be a bit of a balancing act at times
“With the 1st XV the theme has been to consolidate at the next level – in playing terms and financially – before we try and move up again. We had been in National Three South East for five seasons before we earned promotion in May. Before that we had been in London 3 South West for five years.
“We are an amateur club and everybody in our 1st XV is based on the island. It’s a challenge but we do have a number of things working in our favour.
“We have a strong island identity and vibrant youth and mini section. I’m delighted to say that eight or nine of the current 1st XV squad were young lads learning the game when I first arrived as a player 12 years ago.
“What a journey they’ve been on. Not many players get to start their careers in Hampshire One and progress to National Two while not having to move clubs or compromise their work careers outside of rugby.
“Our other big strength is that Guernsey has a big financial sector and a number of our sponsors are pretty big players in that field able to place young guys, perhaps just out of university, on the first rung of that ladder with an appointment on the island. It’s sort of how rugby worked 30
years ago before it went professional.
“Guernsey is some place to spend a few years. I travelled the world when I was younger and in terms of lifestyle, setting and its community involvement, Guernsey is second to none. I absolutely love it here.”
The club were officially founded in 1913 although the minutes of that meeting refer to rugby already being played on the island and, like many clubs, they nearly went out of existence during the Great War and in the years afterwards when so many payers failed to return.
For decades matches against Jersey and small clubs just across the water in France were their mainstay as well as hosting incoming tour teams at Easter or the end of season.
They are members of the Hampshire Union, and with some financial assistance from the RFU, were stalwarts of Hants 1 for many years before they started to get a little more ambitious and make their way cautiously up the Leagues. A new clubhouse was built in 2011 which added impetus to that process but as they have climbed the ladder Guernsey have still resisted any sort of payment to players. That they believe could be their downfall.
The forthcoming season is going to be a challenge, no question, as they find the likes of Clifton, Henley Hawks, Redruth, Taunton, Birmingham & Solihull and others on their fixture list but Reynolds believes the foundations are in place.
The first team squad have been training three nights a week, no hardship given the weather this summer and a selection of world-class beaches five minutes away to cool off – and the club have appointed their first S&C coach to improve their fitness levels.
“We have to think back to last season to our games with the top three or four clubs,” continues Reynolds. “That is going to be the minimum standard of every game this season. So we need to be more consistent, much fitter and there needs to be a huge emphasis on winning home matches. We are happy for Guernsey to be a great trip for the other teams but we want to make it a very difficult place to win.
“Strength in depth is another consideration. Even in National Two I’m thinking most clubs will have 35-40 players to pick from while we will have 28-30 of the required level. We need to try improve that in the long term and in the short term to stay fit and resistant to fatigue injuries.
“Our pride and joy as a club is to see our players develop and improve and if that means us losing some to other clubs at some stage so be it.
“If a Championship side sees somebody they like and the move is right for that player then he must go, and with our blessing. We have at least one player right now for whom that could come into play.
“And that even applies if that recruiting club is Jersey, of course it does. Jersey have become a big ambitious Championship club with a superb record of spotting players and bringing them on before they in turn are head-hunted by Premiership clubs.”