Reds expect large crowd to face London Irish

Saturday 03 November 2018

The Jersey Reds are expecting the largest rugby crowd in over a year this afternoon to out-shout the army of supporters cheering the London Irish once again.

In March 2017, a crowd of 3,317 watched the Reds take on London Irish, with the home side winning 15-11.

This was the only defeat for the Irish that season as they won promotion to the Premiership, only to return after relegation at the end of last season.

They are currently top of the Greene King IPA Championship, having won all eight of their matches so far this season, and a large travelling Green Army will be making the trip to Jersey to cheer them on. Around 1,000 visiting supporters made the trip for the previous game.

Pictured: Jersey Reds' Chairman Mark Morgan.

Reds’ Chairman Mark Morgan said there has been a real buzz at the club this week.

“The players and coaches are relishing the chance to test themselves against the top side in our division, and for the supporters we’re anticipating a fantastic occasion. We had somewhere around a thousand visiting supporters last time the Irish were here, and while we may not quite repeat that number, we know there will be hundreds of supporters making the trip," he explained.

“Before the match in March 2017, we were worried that the visiting supporters might out-shout those cheering for the Reds, but we had a massive, noisy response from our home supporters and we hope they’ll be attending again this time round.”

The Reds, who currently sit sixth in the Championship table and have won their last five games in succession, have made something of a habit of beating the top-ranked teams in their league in recent seasons. This dates back to a win over Rosslyn Park in National League 1 in 2012.

Since then, they have defeated several other opponents who were top of the Championship table: Worcester Warriors in 2015, London Irish in 2017, Bristol last season and Cornish Pirates last month.

While Head Coach Harvey Biljon is still without several of his key players, the Reds are to be boosted by the return of skipper Roy Godfrey. He had been missing since early October after getting injured in Doncaster. Godfrey will look to make an impact from the bench, with Harry Morley, who has stepped up impressively in recent weeks, retaining his place at loose-head prop.

Three players who came on as replacements in last weekend's 28-21 home win over Richmond have been called up to the starting XV to face the Exiles: half-backs Will Homer and Aaron Penberthy, and hooker Charlie Maddison, who could line up against his brother Barney, a second row forward with Irish.

The fourth and final new face in Jersey's starting XV is centre James Newey, whose return sees Koch Marx switch to the wing in place of Jason Worrall.

Today's match kicks off at 14:00. The ground will open at 11:00, and supporters are encouraged to arrive early to avoid last-minute congestion at the entrances. There will be Irish music and dancing around the ground, a post-match DJ in the marquee and a chance to catch up with the international rugby action on the big screens in the clubhouse and pavilion bars.

Lead photo: The Jersey Reds when they faced Yorkshire in September. (Rich Chapman)