Coaching Team
 |
Ben Harvey (HEAD COACH)
England 7’s, Richmond, Bristol, Worcester The Barbarians
SPONSORED BY:- ASHBURTON |
 |
Guy Hinks (CLUB CAPTAIN/ASSISTANT COACH)
Previous Clubs - Jersey United Banks
Representative Honours - RAF U19s, RAF
Played for Jersey 1st XV until a bad cruciate ligament injury affected his playing abilities.
|
|
Lisa Mann MCSP. RHPC (PHYSIOTHERAPIST) |
Les Small
Les Small holds the record for the number of Siam Cup appearances, playing 20, on the winning side 18 times, drawing once and losing once; I would be interested to know how many 1st XV games he has played in over the years.
Les has always maintained a high level of personal fitness and has been injury-free for most of his career. He has always played in his favoured position at centre, prefering to focus on perfecting that discipline rather than being a utility back. For the same reason he never took on the captaincy of the island side.
He has not got line-breaking pace nor a huge step; his outstanding quality is his ability to straighten the back line, commit his opposite number and time his pass to perfection - he very rarely wastes an overlap. It is no coincidence that some of the most successful try-scoring wingers, Jimmy Jordan, Steve Lund etc, played outside Les over the years.
Although he restricted himself to centre when playing, he has a great knowledge of back play generally and would pass this on to less experienced players. Les was always the tactician, always thinking about the game, always working out ways to outwit the opposition; he worked on a building site in the seventies with Dick Allan and Tommy Mee where the whole topic of conversation was rugby, rumour has it the team was selected on the job!
Once he had finished his 1st XV career Les gave up playing; he enjoyed top competition but did not get fulfillment playing in the Jersey local leagues. He now passes on his knowledge and experience to younger players and is part of the coaching team for Jersey 2nd XV.
The only problem with having such a successful career is that Les appears on large numbers of 1st XV photos on the club lounge wall and, Les being a slave to hair fashion, his image reflects the tonsorial fashion of the time; the picture showing Les with a ’Mullet’ still draws admirers. His other main characteristic is his inability to purchase personal hygiene items, meaning that his team-mates had to supply him in soap and deodorant for twenty years.
rn
Rai Garcia-Singh - Strength and Condition Coach
Bob Shambrook, Paul Mash, Ian Anderson