‘No normal National Two game’ as Raiders head to Jersey

On the day when he announced that Guernsey stalwart Tom Ceillam would be back to face the old enemy at Coinshares Park this weekend, Raiders director of rugby Jordan Reynolds also revealed that it was his renowned hooker, who retired from Siam Cup rugby after the victory in May, that elicited the inter-island rivalry at this week’s team meeting ahead of their big National Two East clash.

‘He was straight into the emotion that goes with a game against Jersey,’ Reynolds said.

‘But I would be lying if I said it is not going to be a factor. Anticipation levels are there, so we have got to regulate our players’ emotions.

‘We can see it is difficult for us as a coaching group to say, “this is just another league game”. This has never happened before [at this level] and so it is a difficult dynamic leading up to it – either you go full noise on the excitement of playing Jersey or you can try to play it down saying it is not a big deal and people will think that’s silly.

‘I think as a group we just have to make sure we are really focused on the areas we want to improve from last week. The occasion is there, the excitement is there – it is one of the few weeks we as coaches do not have to try and motivate the group – and that’s something we have to control to give us the best chance to beat Jersey.’

Reynolds also joked that ‘we just bring him out for Jersey’ referring to the selection of Ceillam, before explaining that last week’s player-of-the-match in the win over Leicester Lions, Joe Callery, was the only hooker available this weekend from the four in his squad for the season.

‘It is more of a cameo than a return because we have really good hookers within the squad, it is just unfortunate that we have injuries to two of them and another is unavailable,’ said Reynolds on Ceillam.

‘He has been snooping around training for a few weeks. I wouldn’t say he has overdone it, but we knew Michael Cantle was not going to be available still after picking up a knock in the “international” match and we’ve had Fynn Smail come into the squad, but he is injured too, and Phil Le Noury is unavailable this week, so the fact we had Tommy-Rae lined-up for this game made sense.

‘We still needed two hookers for this game, with the scrum being a huge factor because Jersey’s game-plan is built around the set-piece.

‘He has 18 years of playing Jersey, he knows experience around scrum time and with it being a Jersey weapon, it is important we have a strong starting front row and that we can keep up the pressure in the second half.

‘Joe Callery played well last week and we’re really looking forward to seeing him make an impact off the bench this week.’

The other change in the Raiders side see captain Dom Rice return from injury in a timely fashion as Josh Poullet is away this weekend. Iwan Shenton will shift to No 8.

While Guernsey were kicking off their campaign with an impressive 40-19 bonus-point win on the road last week, newly promoted Jersey lost a hard-fought opener with London Welsh, 33-22, on home soil.

‘It looked like a very good contest between two good sides,’ said Reynolds having reviewed the footage of that match.

‘Jersey were very similar to what we would expect, they are really dependent on their set-piece and they had dominance at scrum time, which would normally give them more of a stronghold within a game, but London Welsh were a very good outfit and although their scrum was back-pedalling for most of the game, they really put Jersey under a lot of pressure.

‘There were probably only two moments – the start of both halves – that Jersey lost grip with London Welsh, though, and there’s not a huge amount they need to fix so I cannot see Jersey making the same mistakes again because they are coached too well by Guy Thompson and he will have them ready for the big clash.

‘They will be high on emotion as well. It is not going to be a normal National Two game, the bar is going to be raised across the park.

‘I do not going looking for the team they select – it is almost irrelevant because we know the 25 guys they have in their squad and they can pick any of them and it will be a good side.

‘For us it is just about what our combinations look like and that is what I am more focused on.’

RAIDERS TEAM

Wrafter, Ceillam, Dromantas, Webb, Broadhurst, Creber, Rice, Shenton, Simmonds, Parks, Kent, Dawe, C McGann, A Armstrong, M Armstrong.

Replacements: Callery, Currie, Wakeham, Rutledge, N McGann.