JERSEY Rugby Club, currently third in London South, Division II, have been told that there is nothing to stop them from turning semi-professional next season, should they want to.

After discussions with John Noel, director of Immigration and Nationality in the Island, they know that as long as the club issues bona fide contracts to players, they could become the first Jersey club to take their sport to yet another level.

It is a prospect which current JRFC coach Dai Burton believes is a logical step forward after guiding his side to promotion last year, knowing that many of the clubs Jersey play against already pay their players.

‘I was talking to the former president of Guildford on Saturday, and he told me that he knows for certain that more than half of the Portsmouth team, who currently top our division, are being paid,’ he said.

‘We don’t pay any of our players.

However, if we were to win promotion next year, the club would be classified as semi-professional.

That, in turn, would mean that the RFU would invest heavily not just in the Ist XV but also into the club itself; from minis rugby, right through to the 1st XV.

I believe that this is the logical way forward for one of the best run clubs in the south of England.

‘It’s not as if the club will ever need more than one or two paid players, but this season we have benefited from having two players who have come in from the UK who have helped take the club, not just the 1st XV, to new heights.

‘Neither of them are paid; both followed stand-off Sam Cummins, a friend of theirs, from Bradford and Bingley to Jersey.

‘But the effect that they have had, particularly on the coaching side, has been tremendous.

If either of them had been with the club since September, we would now be looking at automatic promotion.’ Looking to the future, and because no Island club has ever seriously tested the waters about bringing a professional sportsman to the Island, primarily to play sport, Burton had to approach Immigration to see whether that would be possible.

Afterwards he was given the following whole-hearted backing by John Noel: ‘As long as the club fulfil the relevant criteria there should be no problem.

‘We had a productive meeting with officials from the club.

We’ve said that as long as the players meet the criteria, for example that they are British nationals or that they are members of the Commonwealth, which means they can have working contracts for up to two years, or if their parents or grandparents are British nationals, then they can work in Jersey.

‘If the rugby club wants to employ them for a six-month contract, and as long as they meet the criteria, we’ve no problem with that.

You also have to remember that we will also look at each case individually; so we would treat the rugby club as we treat every other employer in the Island.

‘The club has to make a case for their employees to be offered a contract, but that doesn’t mean that the Rugby Club has to pay them.

At the end of the day, if someone else is paying their way, rather than the club, then that’s fine; the point being that we are not averse to issuing permits to professional sports people.’