Jersey RFC will not pay players after title win says coach Myles Landick
- Published
Jersey have lost just one game in the last two seasons as they march up the divisions
Jersey RFC head coach Myles Landick says the club has no plans to start paying players after their promotion to the fifth tier of English rugby.
The island's amateur side won the Regional Two South Central title on Saturday - their second promotion in as many seasons.
The title came six months after Championship champions Jersey Reds ceased trading after finance issues.
Jersey Reds and Jersey RFC split in 2022 with the clubs sharing facilities.
"We're not going to pay players ever again," Landick told BBC Radio Jersey's Sport Matters podcast.
"For the time being, it's just to be sustainable [and] make sure we can continue to provide playing opportunities for young men and women coming through our minis and juniors and keep providing a platform to play rugby at the highest level that we can sustain.
"Level five for us will be a really good challenge; it could go really well, but we probably wouldn't think too far ahead.
"Even then, I think we'd still be following an amateur model, certainly for the foreseeable future; it's just not right to think any other way for the time being."
Jersey's initial rise up the rugby pyramid was kickstarted by a handful of professional players that were hired by the club that gradually grew as they progressed up from the levels before the Reds split and the new Jersey RFC was formed.
The current amateur Jersey RFC have won 18 of their 19 games this season having been unbeaten in winning the Counties One Hampshire title last year.
Former Jersey Reds forward Myles Landick is also the groundsman at Jersey Rugby Club, as well as being head coach
They will play in fifth tier Regional One South Central next season and have become a home to a number of the formerly professional Reds players who have stayed on the Channel Island.
And while the split of the two clubs effectively ensured the survival of Jersey Rugby Club when Reds went into liquidation, Landick says it came at a cost:
"There were big financial implications for Jersey Rugby Club," he said.
"Suddenly, the club has gone from not having many outgoings and bills because the day-to-day running is run by Jersey Reds to then having all these bills for electricity, floodlights, insurance, etc.
"We were so fortunate that Jersey Rugby Club could continue to run essentially, and that was the main thing.
"At the end of the day, we just want to make sure that rugby on the island continues, so we had no choice but to get it going.
"The committee has got to take a lot of credit because they've all got full-time jobs, and I know I've been on the phone to a few of them a couple of times a day for quite some time, so for them to put the amount of hard work that they have put in to it all has been really special for the club."
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- Published16 March
