LISTEN: The Cool Down - St Jacques secure back-to-back promotions and look to the future

Wednesday 10 April 2024

St Jacques promotion to Counties 1 Hampshire was secured in style.

They beat Chichester II by 108-15 at Footes Lane and are now relishing the prospect of playing at a higher level.

Their progress is good for rugby as a whole on the island, challenging younger players to step up and offering a platform for those in the Guernsey Raiders set up to get more quality game time.

Marketing and commercial director and front row forward James Mroch told The Cool Down that the goal now was to be competitive at the next level in Counties 1.

"It's going to be a challenge, the teams that went up this year have struggled in the most part, so we know it's going to be tough but you get the best out of people when you're tested," said Mroch.

"We've definitely grown this season because we've been tested more, a couple of defeats, we had to learn how to respond to a bit of adversity. But through hard work we've managed to get there.

"Arguably, whenever we've been challenged, or whenever we've played higher level teams, we've played a few at level seven in some friendlies in recent times, we've responded really well to it."

The promotion brings with it another nice problem in terms of the need for more development team games.

"We've got a great pool of younger players and some of those will automatically be ready for that next level and some are not. A large part of our role is to develop those players as well. So we're working with the Raiders to try and work out how we can develop that.

"As the Vikings have risen, that's a brilliant place to be, but its created another dilemma for us to solve. As we know playing sport in the Channel Islands, getting off island is not cheap. That's a challenge we're excited to try and solve."