Jordan Reynolds, CI head coach for the inaugural Spring Insure Granite Trophy clash, and several of his Guernsey Raiders returned to St Peter over Liberation weekend, one week after Jersey regained the Siam Cup, for training with the old enemy to prepare for the ‘international’ clash that awaits at Footes Lane.
‘We met up for the first time as a squad and it was good,’ he said.
‘There are two contrasting teams who play pretty different styles of rugby, so it is about finding that balance between the two and we all came out of it very positive.
‘I’m just really excited about the build up now. I’ll admit that just after the Siam I was like, “can the season just finish now”, but I got over that pretty quickly.
‘It’s funny because a week before you are trying to kill each other in the Siam, now we are joining forces and I think to have been a fly on the wall over the weekend would have been great – how quickly the players build combinations together was just fantastic.’
The training session lasted most of Saturday morning before the squad enjoyed a meal and a social gathering together.
Reynolds even revealed that the Jersey members of the group did not indulge in any leg-pulling about the result from seven days earlier.
‘I actually started the team meeting by joking that I was pretty disappointed they did not have the Siam out on display in the clubhouse, but the Jersey guys said “we have too much respect for you guys for that”.
‘I have to say the buy-in from the players has been so good. Everyone has jumped on board and from both speaking to the group previously and then the session we had together at the weekend, I can honestly say it’s all been really positive.’
The Channel Islands squad has been announced and it contains 13 Raiders alongside 10 Jersey players.
Lewis Hillier from Guernsey and Evan Whitson from Jersey are co-captains.
A group had been provisionally selected before the Siam, but a few players have not recovered from that clash.
‘We believe it is a strong squad and Sweden are going to be strong, too, so it’s a really exciting prospect,’ Reynolds said.
The Channel Islands against Sweden match kicks off at 7.30pm on Saturday at Footes Lane.
Channel Islands team (Raiders unless stated)
Huw Owen (J), Tom Ceillam, Tom Wilson (J), Lewis Hillier, Max Ayling (J), Evan Whitson (J), Dom Rice, Josh Poullet, Sam Boyland, Aaron Penberthy (J), Ethan Smith, Dan Barnes (J), Scott Van Breda (J), Anthony Armstrong, Charlie Simmonds.
Replacements: James Burger, Joe Ridgway (J), Martinas Dromantas, Euan Spencer (J), George Willmot (J), Dale Rutledge, Niall McGann, Callum Roberts.
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.