Sheppey Rugby Club coach Pete Jones hopes pre-season challenges stand his side in good stead for opening game of new Kent 4 campaign at home to Old Gravesendians

Sheppey Rugby Club’s new season gets under way this weekend.

It’s a much-changed Kent 4 Division that they’ll be playing in, as tough fixtures await from the likes of Beckenham 2nds and Dartfordians 2nds, but coach Pete Jones is embracing the challenge.

Sheppey, who start at home to Old Gravesendians today (Saturday), have just completed a pre-season with three games against higher-league opposition.

Jones said: “We deliberately targeted opposition who were in higher leagues, playing Faversham where we lost but played all right, a team in Essex who are the equivalent of two divisions up and Maidstone on [last] Friday night who are two divisions above us, losing by just a couple of tries.

“I am never bothered about scores in pre-season, win or lose, it’s all about getting people on the pitch. We were quite pleased, those who look at results probably aren’t, but what we got from it as coaches we were really pleased with.

“We’re looking forward to the new season with a couple of new teams in the league which always make it interesting. It was a bit of a surprise to see Beckenham 2nds and Dartfordians 2nds in there, but fair enough.”

Foots Cray and King’s College Hospital have come down while Tonbridge Juddians 3rds and Sittingbourne were promoted.

“It’s exciting to play different teams,” said Jones.

“There are still some teams we played last year, but it is a different challenge and we always said we wanted to play against better teams. It gives you a good idea of where you are.”

Jones will assess Sheppey’s standing at Christmas to see where they sit. Unlike the league’s mid-season split the RFU did last year, the same 12 teams will compete home and away for the full season this time around.

“We’ll have a look at Christmas