Royal Navy U23s beat British Army to Win Inter Services Championship

The Royal Navy have the first Inter Service Championship title of the season, their Under-23s overcoming two yellow cards to run out winners at the Army Rugby Stadium.

Storm Conall had long gone by the time the Army and Senior Service kicked off in Aldershot. Unlike swathes of countryside elsewhere in the south of England, the Army Rugby Stadium pitch was clear of water, and the teams served up plenty of entertainment.

LCpl Kevin Van-Der-Leest opened the scoring for the red shirts with a fifth-minute penalty, a feat opposite number, AB George Edson only failed to match by the width of the goalpost five minutes later.

There was no mistake from Edson five minutes later as the Navy stayed in Army territory to tie things up.

The Navy also had first sight of the try line just before the end of the first quarter, winger Mne Freddy Elliott just being beaten to his own chip ahead.

Instead, the visitors had to settle for a second Edson penalty, followed by strong defence of a driving Army maul close to the Senior Service’s line.

But the Army turned on the power at the scrum to force a fumble to set up a great position. They got over the line, too, only for referee, Flt Lt Mike Gray to award a penalty to the Navy for a double movement.

Having held out, the Navy scored the first try just after the half-hour mark. Winger AB Ben Callard broke up the touchline, Edson finishing things off in the corner.

This put the Navy two scores up with half-time approaching, with the Army needing something to go their way.

They were helped by a yellow card shown to Elliott, and a penalty which was kicked to the corner.

But the forwards could not capitalise, and instead the last points of the half went to Edson, who made the score 14 - 3 as the teams headed into the sheds.

The Army needed momentum, and quickly. There were some powerful surges from the forwards, a Van-Der-Leest chip which just evaded the chasing Cft Ben Hurford-John.

There was reward for this effort from a Van-Der-Leest penalty which brought the red shirts back to a 6-14 deficit.

A second yellow shown to the Navy helped, too, AB Jack Davis sent to the stands for dangerous play.

But Van-Der-Leest missed two opportunities to chip away at the lead, and with 20 minutes to go there were still those eight points separating the teams.

Having been under the cosh for virtually all the third quarter, the Navy made the contest theirs to lose with the most sucker punch of scores.

Edson spotted space on the far side to carve a good angle, and with the defending winger up in the line the Navy 10 kicked ahead for Elliot to score in the left corner.

The conversion was missed, but the Navy nevertheless had a 19 - 6 lead and the Army had a mountain to climb.

Edson had a kick at goal, which despite being missed still took a crucial minute off the clock, and while the Army did maintain their effort it was the Navy who had the silverware.

Man of the Match, George Edson said after the game, “…it's pretty surreal to pass out [of HMS Raleigh] in July and then come here and win in my first year of Inter Services, I'm lost my words. On Monday and Tuesday, we spoke about playing in space, and we executed that well, we kept putting them under pressure. Hopefully there are good things to come soon, and we will win again, and again, and again, and again, until I'm old!”

Alex Einchcomb, captain of the winning side followed up by saying, “We looked at what we did wrong in that RAF game, and I think we corrected it perfectly tonight. Defensively, the boys were just awesome out there, putting in shots left, right and centre and we held out…We had a chat at half time before we came out and said that they were going to come out of blocks firing…Those little blips, I think where we did give away a couple of penalties, and a couple of silly things. I think we just did really well to get together. We had a chat with some of the other leadership team and just said, look boys, we need to settle here and get stuck in and at which point I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

“We wanted intent. We wanted them to get off the line in D. The boys were smashing them back defensively and with that there's potential where you get a yellow card or two. They rode the storm when we were down to 14 men so I’m very happy, said Head Coach Ben Priddey “It’s very pleasing babysitting the Under 23s and we're very happy. Thank you!”

Navy U23s: A Einchcomb (C), J Wright, J Turnham; T Horne, T Ashton; L Clayton (VC), C Hancock, R Neagle; C Atwood, G Edson, F Elliott (VC), J Davis, H Brown, B Callard, O Rayner.

Replacements: L Evans, S Brittle, C Davis, T Moss, H Friswell, B Smith, J Mills, H Johnston

Words by C Wearmouth

Images by Cinnabar Studios