Hopes that Jersey and Guernsey rugby sides can combine each year

BBC News

15-05-2025

Organisers hopes Saturday's inaugural Channel Island rugby match can become an annual event.Jersey and Guernsey rugby clubs have come together and will take on Sweden on Saturday evening at Footes Lane.It is the first time the two Channel Island clubs have joined forces for a combined team.The game will be played two weeks after Jersey beat Guernsey in their annual Siam Cup match at St Peter."The intention is to run it every year and next year to play away in Jersey as we have the Siam Cup," Guernsey RFC chairman Gary Haycock-West told BBC Radio Guernsey."Jersey have been very much a part of this journey, very collaborative."The whole idea is it's going to have a good legacy."If we can get a great spectacle, hopefully, over the coming next year or maybe a year after we can then introduce the ladies, the seconds, very similar to the Siam Cup."
With Guernsey traditionally playing in green and Jersey in red the sides will play in a white shirt with the Guernsey flag on the front and Jersey flag on the back.The flags of all five main islands have been included on the shirt, while the side will compete for a trophy whose base is made from Jersey and Guernsey granite. "This came about by thinking 'we've got a big gap in our finances for this budget year, because of the Siam being away', so myself and a couple of others were kicking around a few ideas," added Haycock-West."I went home with great excitement and said to the wife 'we've got this idea, Jersey and Guernsey playing together in a rugby match against someone else;' and she went 'it'll never happen, too much rivalry'."I go down the pub on the Friday with a bunch of mates, much the same answer, so I thought is this a non-starter?"But you put it into the players, and both islands really embraced it because ultimately their end is the Siam Cup and now they're playing internationally against Sweden, so it's a great opportunity."
The team will be co-captained by Guernsey skipper Lewis Hiller and Jersey captain Evan Whitson, with eight starters from the home island and seven starters travelling from Jersey."The opportunity to play an international side like Sweden and combine the two clubs has been something that's excited me for a while," said Guernsey director of rugby Jordan Reynolds, who is leading the coaching staff."They're ranked 30th in the world, they've just come off the back of the European tournament where they did really well."They've got a lot of players playing in National One, so a level above what we're playing at the moment."So it's going to be a huge challenge for us, but one that we're excited about, it's not every day that you get to play with your rival club."Hopefully we can make some success out of this and it can be something that we can play again in a year's time."The game being played a few hours after the Muratti Vase final - where Guernsey face Jersey at football in one of the most hotly anticipated derbies of the year.And while inter-island rivalries on the sports field are nothing new, Haycock-West hopes that this sporting union may well represent a new-found coming together for island sides:"I'm really hoping that if we can make this work, which I believe we are, maybe some other sports can pick up a similar model and start to up their game."Obviously the Channel Islands punch well above their weight in lots of sports like the Commonwealth Games and such like, but hopefully we can move this and work closer together."