Vultures Soar to Victory

The RAF Vultures landed the first blow of the 2025 Babcock Inter Service Championship with a comprehensive 32 - 13 win over the Navy Mariners at Old Northamptonians RFC. It was a performance from the Vultures which had a bit of everything - smash and grab scores, well created tries, and a whole lot of character in defence to repeatedly hold the Mariners out.

The Navy made the most of the hill in the first half to dominate territory, and when centre Ratu Rodelana broke through the light blue line to score the situation looked ominous for the Vultures.

Adam McCrohan made two promising breaks down the right wing, but both times the RAF scrambled to save the score, in doing so giving a foretaste of what was to follow.

The RAF’s first try came at the end of the first quarter and was almost completely against the run of play.

Neat hands saw the ball head to Sean Day and then wing Chris Beasley, who just about managed to keep control of possession while bypassing the last line of defence to the line.

An exchange of penalties kept things tied at 10 - 10, before RAF hit the front on the half-hour, Rob Bell snaring an interception to outpace the defence from 40 metres.

Having taken the lead, the RAF then had to show steel in defence in the final minutes of the half, repelling wave after wave of dark blue carries.

Points were conceded, but the RAF still took a moral victory into the break having restricted the Navy to a Richard Cadywould drop goal which ended the half with the Light Blues leading 17 - 13.

Therearguard effort certainly buoyed the RAF, who scored two tries in the first 12 minutes of the second period.

Bell was over first, sealing both a perfect debut and a Player of the Match performance with a close-range effort coming off an attacking lineout.

Then it was the backs’ turn; lovely hands from John McConnell and Day put James Armiger away, who bounced off two attempted tackles on the way to the try line.

This took the score to 27 - 13, like the deficit that the Navy had fought their way back from at Devonport Services RFC 12 months previously.

Indeed, the Senior Service had a great opportunity to reply with a 50/ 22 lineout a few metres out, only to lose the ball.

Armiger, too, had another sight of the whitewash but dropped the final pass.

Just past the hour the RAF landed the crucial blow. The Vultures had been breaking tackles all half, and when Matthew Tibbatts broke clear on halfway there was one defender to beat and Phil Thomas on his shoulder. The replacement held off Steve Hillman to crash over in the corner.

Not even a yellow card shown to Beasley for a deliberate knock on could spoil the evening for the Vultures, whose jubilation on the final whistle spoke for itself.

Lloyd John provided his post-match reaction, "After a solid week of training, we entered IS25 ready to defend our title. In the opening 25 minutes, we dominated possession but couldn’t capitalise, thanks to a disciplined defensive effort from the RAF. The second half brought more of the same, with the Vultures’ aggressive line speed and solid defence forcing us to ask serious questions of ourselves and ultimately keeping us out of the contest.

It wasn’t the result we wanted, but credit to the Vultures for a strong performance that earned them the win and blew the competition wide open. We'll reset, sharpen our mindset, and turn our focus to the Army Masters in a few weeks."

Mariners: C Carr, B Priddey, T Blackburn; H Mitchell-Hegg, N Copeland; L John (C), V Valemei, S Hillman; R Cox, R Cadywould, C Campbell, J Parsons, R Rodelana, A McCrohan, M Plant.

Replacements: P Price, J Hannon, P Manning, I Scovell, C Hart, A Kent, D Fraser, B Jones.

Words by C Wearmouth

Images by PPAUK