Jersey RFC will play host to Nottingham in the RFU Championship
this weekend, and the Island side are certain the fixture will go
ahead in spite of recent wet weather.
Club officials have been monitoring the state of the pitches at
St Peter closely in recent days, and Chairman Bill Dempsey said he
was very confident the Nottingham match would go ahead.
"While it has been an extremely wet winter, and there was
further rain at the weekend, the ground is playable and we expect
conditions to improve through the week, helped by the forecast of
some drier weather on Thursday and Friday," he said.
The main pitch at St Peter has not staged any rugby since
Saturday January 12th, with the Championship match against
Rotherham two weeks later moved to the adjacent pitch two because
of a particularly heavy spell of rain on the eve of the match.
Dempsey said that pitch two and the neighbouring pitch four were
under consideration to host the game, but that as things stood he
was hopeful that the main pitch would be the one used.
"Unless the weather is significantly worse than forecast, then I
would expect pitch one to be ready," he said. "However we do have a
back-up plan, enabling the match to go ahead in any event, and a
team of people are standing by to help on Friday and Saturday in
carrying out preparations for the game."
Dempsey said that the club had been in close contact with the
RFU's Competition's Department since the end of last week, and that
they also informed opponents Nottingham of the situation on
Monday.
