JRFC star player heading back to Premiership

Tuesday 07 October 2014

JRFC has taken a knock with the news that in-form full-back Tommy Bell is leaving the side to sign for Aviva Premiership team Leicester Tigers.

Bell, a former England Under-20 player, has only just joined Jersey in the summer and has been in top form for the Reds – in the one victory that they have clocked up so far he scored 24 points to help JRFC to a 29-12 victory away at Nottingham.

That performance helped the 21-year-old to the shortlist for Championship Player of the Month Award for September.

Jersey RFC Chairman Bill Dempsey said that a clause in Bell’s contract allowed him to consider any offer from a Premiership team.

He said: "We are very sorry to lose Tommy, he has been one of our stand-out players. I think we knew that he would probably end up leaving Jersey and returning to the Premiership, although we'd hoped this wouldn't have been until the end of this season.

“Having said that Tommy's form has shown he is definitely capable of playing at the top level of the domestic game and we have no wish to stand in the way of his ambitions - we'd like to thank him for the contribution he's made since coming to Jersey in June and wish him all the best for the future.”

Bell has previously played for Sale Sharks and Wasps in the Premiership.

JRFC sit eighth out of 12 teams in the Greene King Championship, with one win, one draw and three losses so far this season.

Coach Harvey Biljon has spoken about the challenges of pulling the team back together after last season’s relegation battle in an in-depth feature in this month’s Connect magazine, available free around town now.