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Jersey Reds v Leicester Tigers Friday 27th August 2021, 5:00pm

Chairman's Welcome

Welcome to our first programme of the new season. Let’s hope we see a full and exciting campaign after the stuttering experiences we have recently had.

What we do know is that the squad got off to a great start last Friday night across the water in Brittany where we were guests of our old friends, RC Vannes. Vannes just missed out on promotion to the top 14 last season, so we knew we were in for a fierce opening game. You can see a full report later in this issue, but suffice to say the boys performed really positively for a first run-out and came away with a highly credible 28-28 draw.

Today we welcome Premiership outfit Leicester Tigers to the Stade. Tigers finished 6th in last season’s table and will provide another stern test as we continue to prepare for the new Championship season. We hope their players, coaching staff, directors and supporters have a great stay in the Island and we thank them for this exciting fixture.

With the further lifting of restrictions on the Island this week, we are delighted to have the club back in full working order with all facilities available to our supporters. Remember, there is still time to buy your membership and to take advantage of the great value afforded by our members’ season ticket. It’s a great way to help support the club too.

Enjoy the game and come on you Reds!

Mark Morgan, Chairman

Harvey's pre-match thoughts...

The Teams...

Reds pre-season

Its was 'phase 2' of pre-season and the squad have return to training camp after a break. In this episode the attention turns to the 3 pre-season games, the first of which is away at French Pro D2 side RC Vannes. "Knocking lumps out of each other but in a good way" is front row forward Ciaran Parker's take on training as the squad are now competing against each other for places.

Vannes 28 - 28 Jersey Reds

Jersey Reds fought out a thrilling 28-28 draw against Vannes in their opening match of 2021/22.

The Reds took on a home team who came close to promotion to the French top tier last season but were unawed in front of 2,960 spectators at Stade de la Rabine.

Harvey's review of RC Vannes match

Today's Opposition

Leicester Tigers are one of the most decorated clubs in the English game, claiming 10 national league titles as well as back-to-back Heineken (European) Cup wins in 2001 and 2002. In 2020/21 the Tigers reached the final of the European Challenge Cup, losing narrowly to Montpellier, while their Gallagher Premiership campaign saw them finish in sixth position.

Tigers’ Head Coach is Steve Borthwick, who won 57 England caps and played around 400 games for Bath and Saracens before retiring in 2014. He was a part of Eddie Jones’ England coaching team before making the move to Leicester 12 months ago.

The club boasts a large number of internationals, including four players who were part of the England squad which reached the 2019 World Cup final: props Dan Cole and Ellis Genge, scrum-half Ben Youngs and fly-half George Ford. Other internationals include Youngs’ older brother Tom, Nemani Nadolo of Fiji, Juan-Pablo Socino of Argentina and two back row players who featured for South Africa in the recent test series win over the British and Irish Lions: Jasper Wiese and Marco Van Staden.

Three former Jersey Reds players are among the Tigers’ squad: hookers Charlie Clare and Nic Dolly, both of whom spent loan spells on the Island, and prop Dan Richardson, who was with the Reds for two years before becoming the latest Jersey player to earn a move to the top flight this summer.

The Reds have taken on the Tigers twice previously in pre-season encounters: in August 2012 more than 4,000 spectators saw a 21-34 Leicester win in a game featuring nine tries; 12 months later it was a more one-sided encounter with the visitors scoring 11 tries and winning 7-69.

Meet the opposition

Kevin Sinfield

Sinfield joined Steve Borthwick’s coaching team this summer after three years as Director of Rugby at Super League club Leeds Rhinos.

In a trophy-laden professional rugby league career spanning 18 years, Sinfield made more than 500 appearances for Leeds Rhinos and represented England and Great Britain on more than 40 occasions.

A seven-time Super League champion, two-time Challenge Cup and triple World Club Challenge winner, Sinfield finished his rugby league career as the most decorated domestic professional player in English history and the Super League's record appearance holder and points-scorer.

In 2015, he joined Yorkshire Carnegie in the Greene King IPA Championship for a season, featuring in his side’s British & Irish Cup semi-final win over the Reds at Headingley, before retiring from playing professionally at the conclusion of the campaign.

Jordan Olowofela

Academy graduate Jordan Olowofela made his first senior appearance for Leicester Tigers as part of the squad in the Premiership Sevens in 2015 and made his Premiership breakthrough during 2018/19.

Jordan could line up against his twin brother Ryan, who joined the Reds this summer and scored the opening try in last weekend’s draw with Vannes. The siblings, now 23, joined the Tigers academy from Lincoln Minster School.

Jordan represented England at under-20 level in the 2018 Six Nations and Junior World Cup.

He made 24 first-team appearances during 2018/19 as part of a group of development squad players making the grade at the top level.

Charlie Clare

Now approaching his 30th birthday, Charlie Clare was part of the Academy set-up at Tigers during his teens and gained senior experience with spells with Nottingham, Bedford Blues, Loughborough Students and Jersey Reds. He spent the second half of the 2012/13 season on the Island, and played his first game for the Reds on his 21st birthday in a B&I Cup tie against Leinster ‘A’ at Donnybrook in Dublin.

After a move to Northampton Saints in 2016, Clare returned to Bedford and eventually amassed more than 100 appearances for the Blues before returning to Tigers in summer 2019, and making 34 1st XV appearances over the past two seasons.

Tigers Camp

Behind the scenes footage from the Tigers training camp in Jersey with Ben Youngs.

1ST TEAM FIXTURES & RESULTS 2021

Reds Women back in action

After 16 months without rugby, the Jersey Reds women fought hard, under the lights, against Cooke RFC.

There were a lot of pre-match nerves, not only from new Head Coach Simon Le Moignan, but also from two 18 year old debutants Hannah Le Moignan & Izzy Culnane who have come through the Reds mini & juniors section of the club.

Cooke started very strongly and led 26-0 at the end of the third. After the break Jersey started to take the game to Cooke but just couldn’t break the strong defence. In the final third of the match Jersey experimented with players trying different positions and their confidence really grew against a side boasting four players from Ulster and an Ireland prop. However, last ditch defending again denied Reds a well-deserved try.

Head Coach Le Moignan stated ‘I am so proud of the way the Reds Women played and the crowd really got behind the girls and the support was fantastic on the pitch and after the game too. I’d like to thank everyone involved in getting the match arranged and also all the hard work of Christelle Mangematin and James Morgan.

The Reds Women start their league campaign away to Seaford with their first home match against Lewes 2nds on 24th October - please come along and show your support.

Created By
Jersey Reds
Appreciate

Credits:

Michel Renac, Jacquie Ranieri, Sue Armes, Rich Chapman, Claire Jeffrey, Leicester Tigers