Travel-weary Reds can’t wait for home comforts
LIFE on the road is proving a tough slog for Championship side Jersey Reds, who travelled to Castle Park yesterday to play Doncaster in their fourth straight game on the road.
With all their ‘home’ games so far switched to the away venue due to Covid restrictions, Reds’ first fixture to take place at their Stade Santander ground is now scheduled to be against Nottingham on Saturday April 24 – their eighth fixture of the season.
It will be their first game on the island since clashing with Newcastle Falcons last February, 14 months ago.
Director of rugby Harvey Biljon, below, told TRP: “The players have embraced it as they feel privileged that they’ve got the opportunity to play, but the travel is really tough, I didn’t realise how tough it was going to be.
“We’re up early at the club at 6.30am and walking across to the airport to get the flight before catching two coaches to head to the ground on the mainland, then a quick turnaround to train before we play. “Then afterwards you’ve got to travel back and test on arrival, isolate all of Sunday and test again on Monday. We’re only back in the flow of things once we get the Monday negative result. “It’s those few days which are pretty tough – for the guys to manage their injuries and for us to look after them – and then to just get back into a normal rhythm of match reviews, previews and all those things.” Despite the difficulties, Jersey are battling hard to be a competitive force and after defeats to Richmond and Saracens, they sealed a moral boosting 25-20 win at Bedford Blues on March 27.
Biljon added: “The guys are managing it and taking it on head first. We don’t want to make excuses, we just want to put in performances like at Bedford to make all the supporters who have been watching proud of us and they understand how difficult it is for us.
“Life is very different at the moment. The guys don’t get to have meals together, or be together, so that unity and team spirit is a little bit disjointed.
“But as we play more games hopefully you’ll see that team coming together a little bit more and that will build more in performance for us too.”