We lost it last year and the year before I was injured in the very first few minutes and had to come off,’ O’Brien said.
When reminded that Jersey weren’t helped last year when one player was sent off, and he was sin-binned, he pauses before adding: ‘But that won’t happen again to any player this year.
We know we’ve all got to be on our very best behaviour, while also giving 100 per cent.
Last year they came out firing at us and we didn’t rise to the challenge; so we’ve some unfinished business to take care of.
‘I’ve been told that they might have some of their guys coming back into the side who played last year, but we’ve been getting better all season and we’ve taken a step up again from last year, although it took us a few games to realise what we could do.
If we’d known how well we can play, we could have been pushing for promotion.
We’ve got a settled team and I believe we’ll win because we’re better than them!’ Guernsey captain Andy Bailey used the same phrase: ‘unfinished business’ as he looked forward to the game.
He was side-lined for Guernsey’s first Siam Cup win in a decade through injury, so that monumental win last year, is a memory tinged with disappointment.
‘I would be lying if I said it did not hurt,’ he said.
‘At the time I was chuffed for the boys, but looking back on it as a diehard Guernseyman, I missed out on something I want dearly.’ And, despite a relegation battle this year, towards the end of the season he believes his team has also reached a new level in terms of commitment and flair.
‘Our best game of rugby all season was the most recent one, the 40-19 win over Camberley,’ he said.
‘If we had been relegated and ended up two divisions below Jersey, it would have been a catastrophe.
That is out of the way, now, and this (the Siam Cup) is our reward.
We have been playing heads-up rugby since John Colley and Steve Thomas took over the coaching, and we won’t be changing that approach now.’ Although admitting that, before the match: ‘I’ll feel physically sick, because of nervous energy and adrenaline,’ he is generally relaxed about the games he plays in; all of them except special ones, like this.
And, after last year of having to watch from the sidelines, 80 or so minutes after 3 pm today he wants just one extra bonus from this rugby season.
He wants his hands, as captain, to be first on the Siam Cup.
