TWO Barrow Island players jetted off to Dubai last night to compete in a prestigious tournament.

Steve Jefferson, along with one-time Barrow Raider Paul Wilcock, will join up with team-mates as part of the BARLA Bulldogs squad to compete in the Dubai International Veteran 10s.

The duo – who played for the Rating Lane outfit last season – and ex-Whitehaven player Carl Sice are the only three Cumbrians in the over-35s representative squad.

The Bulldogs will take on experienced opposition in the three-day rugby union tournament, which begins on Thursday. One team they could face is the Joining Jack Legends side – a squad which includes household names such as Paul Sculthorpe, Andy Farrell and Mick Cassidy.

Jefferson, the deputy head teacher at Chetwynde School, is excited about that possibility, and said: “We are hoping we get drawn against them to get to play against people like that.”

Both Jefferson, a centre or winger, and prop Wilcock have trained with the squad at venues such as Wigan and Leeds ahead of the tournament and are delighted to have been selected.

“It was fantastic that we’ve both got on to the team together,” said Jefferson, the brother of amateur international and long-time Barrow Island player Matt.

“Both of us have played together from kids through Barrow Island.

“We both turned 35 this year and we knew of other people who had been on the tour before, so we decided we would start playing again this season, to at least make ourselves available. We are really excited to go.”

Both Jefferson and Wilcock have put in the hours get themselves in the peak of fitness for the tournament, which runs alongside the IRB International Sevens.

Jefferson has also put his experience of selection to good use and at a school assembly talked to pupils about goal-setting and working towards a dream, before later announcing his selection for Great Britain.

While brother Matt has represented his country at international level, it is an honour which has eluded Steve until now.

He said: “I have played county but I have never been picked international-wise and it was a kind of ‘let’s do it and have a go and see if I can get picked’ – so I am really pleased as are the rest of the family.”