MANY parallels can be drawn between Jersey RFC and tomorrow’s opponents, London Irish Wild Geese.
The sides occupy the top two spots in Regional 2 South Central, in what is anticipated to be a classic between the promotion rivals.
However, the similarities do not stop at their position in the table.
Both London Irish and Jersey Reds were two of the high-profile professional sides to fold this calendar year.
Wild Geese play their home games at the training pitch of the former Premiership outfit, with many faithful followers of The Exiles turning their attention to the grassroots team.
Head coach Myles Landick said: “It’s probably our biggest game in the last couple of seasons.
“Purely because of the enormity of what a win does. We can open up a little gap on the chasing pack.
“Wild Geese play at London Irish’s old training ground, which is a special place and the facilities are top quality.
“We have also seen many of The Exiles fans extend that support to Wild Geese and they tend to get a big following at their home games.
“Everyone in our side wants competitive rugby. These are the fixtures we live for.”
Landick’s side have yet to taste league defeat since entering the English rugby union system.
The Islanders bulldozed their way through the inaugural campaign, winning 21 straight games to secure promotion and be crowned champions of Counties 1 Hampshire.
Fast-forward to this season and the step up in quality has only seemed to stoke the fire of this fledgling side.
Now seven wins from seven, the Caesareans boast both the best attacking and defensive record in the league.
Buoyed by the addition of former Reds Scott Van Breda and James Mitchell, an already strong starting 15 is looking even more potent, sending warning signals to those across the English Channel.
All of this in a squad that “haven’t fully clicked yet” accordingly to their head coach.
“Having Mitch [James Mitchell] involved has been brilliant.
“It’s been huge what he has brought to the squad in the last couple of weeks.
“Brendan [Owen] laid the foundations for getting our attack sorted and Mitch has just come in and furthered that even more.
“The guys are really excited about the way we want to play and Mitch is driving that big time. We are very grateful to have his knowledge around the team.
“On our day, there is no reason why we can’t beat everyone in this league.
“We are seven wins from as many games and still feel like we haven’t fully clicked yet.
“We pride ourselves on doing the simple stuff well and the simple stuff fast.
“If we can continue to make inroads into perfecting that, we will be very hard to stop.”
All of Jersey’s next four fixtures come against teams in the top five.
Come the start of next month, Landick and his men will hope to have put substantial distance between them and the chasing pack.
In a strong starting 15, captain Evan Whitson shifts back from hooker to his preferred spot at six.
Mitchell starts his first RFC game at fly-half in the absence of Penberthy, with South African Van Breda at 12.
Elsewhere, last season’s player of the year Dom Mayo is fit again and slots into centre alongside Van Breda.
Try-scoring machine George Willmott also moves back into number eight for his side’s crunch encounter.
Jersey RFC to face London Irish WG: Ewan Davies, Jack Macfarlane, Tom Wilson, Bryn Edwards, Euan Spencer, Evan Whitson (c), Tim Corson, George Willmott, Max Harrington, James Mitchell, Nathan Rogers, Scott Van Breda, Dom Mayo, Sam Harvey, Charlie Hubert. Replacements: Joe Ridgway, Jerry Sexton, Callum Cuthbert.
