Jersey boys come to town
New boys
By Beeston Lion
September 5 2012
No, not another West End musical on tour, but the Championship newcomers looking to build on their meteoric rise through the divisions and establish a place in the upper reaches of the RFU pyramid. Since 2004 Jersey have risen from the level of London SW Division and have established an enviable record of being able to improve year on year.......
Last weekend was their first fixture in the Championship and playing at home they lost out 6-20 to the Pirates in a cross channel ‘derby’ match. Incidentally the man with the whistle was one Steve Lee from Horsforth in Leeds.
Leeds Carnegie get the first go at testing the Islanders abilities whilst on the road and, if travelling to Jersey is an occasion for visiting teams, what is it like for the Jersey boys to travel such distances every other week? Having said that there are a couple a familiar faces from this part of the world in the Jersey squad with ex Knights hooker Steve Boden having moved to the island this close season. He is joined by Talite Vaioliti who has moved back to his previous club after two years in the North, at Wharfedale and Rotherham respectively.
Those who saw Carnegie in action at Meadow Lane were both thrilled, by the action in the first twenty five minutes, and appalled by most of the remainder of the game and came away from the match wondering if we are going to experience a repeat of last season’s dire start to a campaign. However there has to be a rise in the level of expectation this time around because a bonus point gained, away from home against one of the divisions more promising teams, has to offer some kind of encouragement irrespective of how they contrived to do themselves out of an even better return.
Having considered the limited evidence so far I would expect Carnegie to overcome the valiant Islanders and get their season properly underway with a comfortable victory, always assuming of course that lessons are learnt and costly errors are minimised!
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:09:12:21:02:09 by Wildwillie .
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