Chairman's Welcome
Dobro pozhalovat'! - which, as I am sure you all know, is Russian for "Welcome!". I hope you have had a good summer and are once again ready for more great rugby from your Reds.
It's hard to believe that it was only back on the 11th of May that we were regaining the Siam Cup from our old friends from Guernsey... and just some three months later, we were in Moscow taking on and beating the Russian national team in their own backyard! It's a story that would have been hard to make up. The whole thing happened over just some two and a half weeks when Russia's pre-planned World Cup warm-up game against Georgia was suddenly cancelled.
Anyway, the rest is history. We beat our hosts with tries from numbers 9,10,11,12 and 14 and a 100% conversion rate from new boy Greg Dyer yielding a result of 35-22 in our favour, giving us a piece of club history that will never be forgotten.
You can imagine the amount of focus and organisation it took to pull this trip off in such a short time span and I would again like to thank all of those people at the club who played a part in making this happen.
And so back to reality. We are thrilled to welcome all players, staff, officials and fans of the legendary Scarlets of Llanelli for our final pre-season match. Playing in the Guinness Pro-14, Scarlets are one of the pre-eminent Welsh regional sides that produce so many full Welsh internationals. We will be facing a stern test today and I know the squad is really looking forward to the challenge.
Much has been done at the Stade Santander International over the summer and I hope you are pleased with the results as we continually try to improve your match-day experience.
Thank you all for your support. Remember, if you haven't already bought your membership and season tickets, there is still plenty of time to do so - head over to the Jersey Reds website - it's a great way to support your Island's club!
Enjoy the game and come on you Reds!
Mark
Russia 22 - 35 Jersey Reds
Jersey Reds claimed a famous win in Moscow, defeating the Russian national side ahead of their trip to the Rugby World Cup.
The visitors scored five tries to four and withstood some considerable second-half pressure to retain their lead against the side ranked 20th in the World Rugby rankings. The Russians will face hosts Japan, Ireland, Scotland and Samoa in the World Cup, while the Reds prepare for their eighth campaign in the Greene King IPA Championship.
Today's Opposition
The Scarlets are one of four Welsh sides playing in the Guinness PRO14 alongside teams from Ireland, Scotland, Italy and South Africa.
The Scarlets are based in Llanelli, one of the most famous rugby towns in the world. Llanelli RFC played their first match in 1876 and some of the biggest names in Welsh rugby such as Ken Jones, Delme Thomas, Ray Gravell, Phil Bennett and Derek Quinnell represented the club in the 1960s and 70s. More recently, the famous scarlet jersey was worn by players such as Ieuan Evans, Jonathan Davies, Stephen Jones and George North.
The Scarlets region was formed officially in 2003 and in 2008 the team made the move to their 15,000-capacity £23 million home ground Parc y Scarlets. Llanelli RFC continue as a semi-pro club in the top flight of Welsh rugby, and also play at the new ground.
Prior to the professional era, Llanelli played Jersey twice in tour matches at St Peter, winning 0-25 at St Peter in April 1970, and 31-40 in May 1981. The next encounter came 20 years after rugby union turned pro, with the Scarlets visiting the Island for a pre-season match in August 2015. It was an entertaining encounter featuring 11 tries, six of them by the visitors through Price, Davies (J), Davies (A ), Boyde, Williams (R) and Nicholas. The hosts had just five points on the board at the break thanks to Tom Howe’s try, but a strong finish brought further tries for James Freeman, Dave Markham, Nick Selway and Mr P. Try, and it finished 27-40.
The Scarlets won the PRO12 - prior to its expansion - by beating Munster in the 2017 final, but 12 months later were the losing finalists after being beaten by Leinster. In their most recent campaign they finished fourth in Pool B and missed out on European Champions Cup qualification after losing a play-off to Welsh rivals the Ospreys. The Scarlets best recent performance in Europe was to reach the Champions Cup semi-final in 2018, losing to Leinster.
The forthcoming Rugby World Cup will have a major bearing on our visitors resources for the game at Stade Santander International: no fewer than 11 Scarlets’ players have been chosen by Warren Gatland in the Wales squad, and there have also been call-ups from Samoa for centre Kieron Fonotia, Tonga for lock Sam Lousi and Scotland for back row man Blade Thomson. In contrast, there are two Reds sure to be in Japan - Namibia’s Janco Venter, and Leeroy Atalifo, who had a late but well-earned call-up by Fiji this week.
Meet the opposition
Brad Mooar
Mooar has replaced Wales coach-in-waiting Wayne Pivac as the new Scarlets head coach and arrived in Llanelli just weeks after helping the Crusaders clinch another Super Rugby title.
A former solicitor and rugby agent, the 45-year-old has coached in South Africa with Eastern Province Kings and the Southern Kings (where current Wales and Scarlets centre Hadleigh Parkes was playing), before heading back to New Zealand to take the helm at the Southland Stags in the Mitre 10 Cup.
He then stepped up to the Crusaders as attack coach and enjoyed a huge amount of success with the Kiwi franchise.
Mooar has also coached the New Zealand Secondary Schools and New Zealand Barbarians teams.
Johnny McNicholl
The former Crusaders flyer was one of the stars of last season’s Guinness PRO14 campaign, just missing out on the competition’s top player award.
McNicholl finished the season as the PRO14’s second highest try-scorer, beat more defenders than any other player and finished second in the stats charts for metres made and clean breaks.
An elusive counter-attacker from wing or full-back, the 28-year-old has scored 30 tries in 63 appearances in a Scarlets’ jersey since his arrival from Canterbury in 2016.
Signed a new contract with the Scarlets in the summer and qualifies for Wales on residency after this year’s Rugby World Cup.
Kieran Hardy
A player Jersey fans will know all about after he swapped the Scarlets for the Reds back in 2016.
A Wales Under-20s cap and product of the Scarlets Academy, he returned home to West Wales for the start of last season and made an instant impact.
With his slick delivery, pace and eye for the gap, Hardy (23) quickly rose up the scrum-half pecking order at Parc y Scarlets with his two-try display against PRO14 champions Leinster in Dublin a highlight.
He was named the supporters’ breakthrough player of the season and picked up the try of the season for his stunning solo effort at home against Zebre.
Today's Match Sponsor
Santander International offers banking and savings accounts to Channel Island and Isle of Man residents, UK expats and UK residents who have international banking needs and Corporate Banking solutions for Channel Island and Isle of Man domiciled companies.
Jersey Reds and the club’s lead sponsor Santander International have extended their agreement.
Santander International has been the club’s lead sponsor since 2016 and took up naming rights to the Reds’ home ground, Stade Santander International, at the start of the 2017/18 season. Two years later and the two partners have now agreed an extension to the sponsorship stretching until the end of the 2024/25 season.
Credits:
Richard Chapman Jacquie Ranieri