Not only will they be playing away from home with a team missing regular half-backs Jon Swift and James Cooper; they will also be playing against a team ‘beefed up’ by a side which has had too many players out, recently, through injury, plus a return to Tunbridge of their university boys.
Even so, director of rugby, Dai Burton, is cautiously optimistic that Jersey will win.
‘But we’ve got to be careful,’ he said.
‘If we maintain our attitude, we could win promotion.
But poor passing or poor finishing this season has meant that we could have scored 50 per cent more points than we have done, even though we’re scoring an average of 40 points a game.’
Coach Barry George is equally cautious, for although the pack is pretty much the same as it has been for most of the season, his three-quarter line-up is different to any he has selected for any game since September.
‘Jon’s ankle could go in the first minute, so we’d much rather give him a full three weeks’ rest,’ he explained, ‘while James (Cooper) will be missing for this game plus the first in the New Year.
So Keiaho Bloomfield fits in at scrum-half, with Sam (Tuia) in at centre alongside James Milner.
Steve O’Brien, who played No 10 last week against the Marines, will continue at half-back with Ryan (Morgan) and Christian (Weald) both playing on the wing.
Mark Le Mott?e comes in at full-back.’
Ace openside flanker Graham Bell, now back in Scotland, returns after an ankle injury.
So it is very much a new look team, although both O’Brien and Le Mott?e played well in their win against the Royal Marines (29-0) last Saturday when Milner, playing on the wing, scored a hat-trick of tries.
However, no game will be easy, and although Tunbridge Wells are currently mid-table, in their last league game, two weeks ago against Dorking, away, they deservedly won, 24-10.
To beat them again (in Jersey, Tunbridge lost 45-3), the Island side’s pack in particular will have to be dominant from the start.
However, all of the clubs in London South II now see Jersey as the benchmark.
To beat them is, for this season only, the ultimate challenge and, at some stage during the season, either away from home on a muddy pitch on the outskirts of London or even on the width of the pitch up at St Peter, one London II South side will push Jersey Rugby Club to the limits of their ambition.
Collins Stewart squad: Marcus Nobes, Josh Chamier, Jon Brennan, Ian Henderson, Talite Vaioleti, Graham Bell, Kern Yates, Latu Maka’afi, Keiaho Bloomfield, Steve O’Brien, Christian Weald, James Milner, Sam Tuia, Ryan Morgan, Mark Le Mott?e.
Replacements: Jim Brimelow, Peter O’Connor, John Allo, David Felton.
