Havant RFC Eyeing Twickenham in the Papa Johns Community Cup
Photo credit: Mark D - Windandsurf Images.
Havant RFC Director of Rugby, Rob Matthews, believes it’s impossible to overestimate the effect of an exciting a run in the inaugural Papa Johns Men's Community Cup.
The rugby fanatic from Cambridgeshire would love to take his team to Twickenham for the Cup Finals which take place on 30 April and across the weekend of May 6th and 7th.
Over 500 grassroots clubs in 24 competitions are taking part in the new end-of-season Papa Johns Community Cup, starting this Saturday when Havant travel to Shelford – where Matthews made his County U16s debut.
Some of his first-team squad were involved in the Bill Beaumont Division 2 Final between Hampshire and Leicestershire at Rugby HQ in 2017, and they are keen to make it there again.
"The clubhouse has pictures of the players that were in that County final," he says. "Playing a game at Twickenham is probably the highlight of any rugby player’s career.
"We're fortunate to have a number of Forces players with us that have also played at Twickenham in the Army v Navy games, and they talk so fondly of their memories of playing at Twickenham, how huge it is for them. People sometimes underestimate what it means for rugby players to go and play at Twickenham."
As well as current Army and Navy stars taking to the field for Havant, there is one rugby-mad family inextricably linked with the Hampshire club.
"We have three first team brothers who have all gone off and experienced different clubs – a few have even gone through London Irish academy," he added. "The eldest, Joel [Knight], our current captain for over 10 years now, played at UWIC and played rugby league for Wales Students.
"The middle brother, Jacob, was at Nottingham University and played at Nottingham, while the youngest, Reuben, played at London Irish Academy and was part of Ealing Academy. All have come back to play for Havant, where they started their journeys.
"They are the sons of our Head Coach, Will Knight and this is Will’s 50th season of involvement in the club. Will was among our first minis and junior, the section celebrating 50 years next year, so there's a real family element about our club."
As well as preparing for half-century anniversary celebrations, Matthews is hoping the competition will act as a springboard to return stronger at the start of the coming campaign.
He said: “This is a massive opportunity for a club to look at where they've come over the last season, to do something different, but also to start to prepare for next season and give people that hunger and desire to come back and play next season.
“And if you get it right, you then use it as a social media and a publicity campaign. It's going to help drive the Havant brand in the local area which will help us recruit and retain players so that we can push on next season to hopefully gain promotion to level four.
“It ticks so many boxes at so many levels. It's really important to us.”
