Matt Bananhan relishing return home to Jersey as Bath Rugby continue pre ...

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It will be a case of home from home for Matt Bahanan as Bath Rugby continue their pre-season preparations with a friendly against Jersey on Saturday (3pm).

The 27-year-old winger was born in St Helier and came through Jersey RFC’s ranks before joining the London Irish Academy in his teens.

England international Banahan has gone onto become one of the island’s greatest sporting exports, while Jersey have enjoyed a success story of their own and were promoted to the Championship in 2012.

“I think it’s nine or ten years since I was playing over there,” recalled Banahan, inset.

“I’m a born and bred Jerseyman and used to go up there as a kid.

“The first rugby game I ever watched was when the game went professional and Bath went over there for a pre-season friendly. That’s my first memory of standing on the sidelines with my dad.

“To think it’s nearly 20 years later and Bath are going back over and I am now playing for Bath is quite strange.

“My mum and dad still live there, my aunt and my cousins, all my best mates and the godfather to my children. They’ll all be coming to the game so I’m massively looking forward to it.”

Jersey have narrowly beaten the drop in each of their two seasons in English rugby’s second tier but Banahan says they will provide a stiff assessment of Bath’s credentials.

“They’ve signed Jonny Bentley from Gloucester and Tommy Bell from Wasps, so they’re going to challenge,” he said.

“They’ve had two years of coming one off the bottom in the Championship but there have been a lot of games when they’ve put the front runners in that league under huge pressure.

“It’s not going to be a joke over there. It’s our last pre-season game and we’ve got to iron out some stuff going into the Premiership.”

After using a 36-man squad for last Saturday’s opening pre-season at home to Scarlets, Bath head coach Mike Ford will field a more streamlined outfit at St Peter.

Skipper Stuart Hooper and England stars George Ford, Dave Attwood, Jonathan Joseph, Davey Wilson and Anthony Watson all sat out against Scarlets with minor injury problems and Ford says he will not be throwing anyone back in unnecessarily so close to the start of the season.

“We won’t be playing 30 players, it will be more like 23 or 25 players, and we’ll give them a solid workout in terms of game time,” he said.

“We’ve got a few guys who have all got minor problems and if anyone’s a risk I won’t play them.”

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/28822882

Matt Bananhan relishing return home to Jersey as Bath Rugby continue pre ...