JERSEY REDS chairman Mark Morgan is ‘fantastically’ excited to be welcoming back the England men’s national rugby team to the club next week as they prepare for the Autumn Internationals.
England return after a successful camp the previous year for the same preparations, using Reds’ home ground and the adjacent Strive Health Club to fine-tune their fitness and tactics ahead of games against Argentina, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa.
England’s head coach Eddie Jones named a 36-man squad for the internationals on Monday, all of whom will be coming to Jersey for camp, with an open training session taking place for Islanders to watch on Friday 28 October, including Leicester’s Ben Youngs, Saracen’s Owen Farrell and Jonny May of Gloucester.
‘We’re really looking forward to welcoming Eddie and the guys next week, but I think this is just another commendation of what we’ve achieved and what we’re able to offer,’ said Morgan. ‘We had the most most amazing pre-season with three Premiership teams here (Leicester Tigers, London Irish and Bath), three weeks on the trot back-to-back.
‘We have had the British and Irish Lions and we had England last year. We’ve already got Premiership teams queuing up to do pre-season next year. So there’s obviously something appropriate about what we can offer between us and Strive.
‘The players love coming over here. It’s not a massive journey. It’s a rugby environment. So they feel good about that. Yet they can still walk down the streets and not be pestered. So I think it’s got a lot going for it and long may that last.’
Morgan confirm that the club have invited 600 primary school children from around Jersey to watch the open training session, while tickets will go on sale to cover some of the costs.
‘We’re really looking forward to it,’ added Morgan. ‘We got a lot of kids that we want to get up and get interested in the game.’
