Hundreds upon hundreds of visiting players from France, the UK and Guernsey gave fresh playing experience to Academy youngsters and those from the emerging St Helier Combined Schools teams.
Although highly competitive the festival was not run on on a tournament basis, with the matches arranged so to give the maximum benefit to both sides in terms of size, skill levels and experience. It was a formula that worked well, but Academy chairman Roger Nightingale, was not ruling out changes in summing up how the weekend had worked out.
He said: ‘It’s been fantastic. Really, really good. We’ve learnt lessons as we have gone on but the children have had an absolutely great time.
‘The majority of the matches have been meaningful in that they have been close-run affairs and of course you’ve got hundreds of people milling about the Island doing their bit for the Jersey economy.
‘Including our own sides there has been probably 600 players in action over the weekend, including about 250 visitors.
‘The one thing that was immediately apparent was that had we been fully subscribed we would have been stretched. Next year we will probably restrict it to the U7s to U12s because of the strain on facilities.
‘But it was always very much a suck-it-and-see situation this year and we’ll sit down and see what we can do to improve it next year.
‘But it’s already set in concrete … we will definitely do this every year. Providing the facilities are available it’s a real addition to the Academy’s fixture list.’
The chairman, who was keen to give credit to ‘red-hot’ organisers such as Ash Hillier, has not ruled out expanding the festival to include playing fields at nearby Les Quennevais, but is aware that would entail planning even further ahead.
‘Every age-group organiser has had to work around a variety of problems that are going to occur when attempting something of this size – and they’ve all done a wonderful job … very impressive.
‘Highlights? Well, loads! We’ve had sides recruited in St Helier all they way up to U11s who haven’t played before and they have come up and performed really well. The feedback we’ve had from their parents has been really good.
‘The French have really added to the atmosphere as well, and that connection is something we are planning to build on – from a purely financial basis it is cheaper to go there than the UK.
‘We’ve issued a medal to everyone who has played. It has been a friendly competition and we did not go down the tournament route on this occasion, though we may look at that for the future.’
RDO David Felton was delighted with the experience the St Helier youngsters from the Deutsche Bank Development programme enjoyed, saying: ‘Playing sides from France and the UK really makes it a special occasion for the youngsters and it’s something they will remember for a long time.’
Hove RFC’s Pete Domzalski said: ‘Our boys have had a great time even away from the rugby … ten-pin last night, surfing at the Watersplash, aerial challenges at Creepy Valley then paint balling! Festivals aren’t all about rugby . . . and the parents get a chance to sit down and rest. It’s all been very well organised, particularly for the first one, and Jersey have been very helpful.’
