Raiders aim for play-offs in Reynolds' 20th season

Guernsey Raiders' director of rugby has set his team the target of reaching the play-offs in what will be his 20th season at the club.

Jordan Reynolds first donned the green and white shirt in 2006 after moving from his native Australia, and initially only planned to stay for a single year.

But Reynolds decided to remain and was appointed director of rugby in 2014. Since then he has overseen the club's climb from the 10th tier to the fourth, where they now play in the National League Two East.

Now, he says the club does not intend to "just sit in the league for the next five or six years," and that a top-four finish would be "an amazing achievement".

"When I first got here we had a little clubhouse and basically nobody turned up for training," he told BBC Radio Guernsey.

"But now things have become a lot more professional, from the board to the playing level."

Reynolds said the increasing stature of visiting clubs showed the strides the club had made over recent years.

"If you looked at where Guernsey is now and told someone 20 years ago that we would be here, they would have laughed at you.

"When you have international fixtures or when you start getting teams like Rennes over to play us, you have to sit back and pinch yourself."

Last season, Raiders finished just one place out of the relegation spots, which Reynolds described as "hugely disappointing".

"We just didn't get things going, and you have to give credit to the league as it was one of the toughest that we've played in, and so we were lucky to even finish 11th.

"We want to make improvements, and now there's infrastructure around us it should help us to develop.

"If we get ourselves up into the top four or top five that would be an amazing achievement, and whatever comes afterwards would be even better."

Guernsey Raiders kick-off their National League Two East season away to Leicester Lions on 5 September.