A blistering opening twenty minutes gave no clues to the finale of this match where the RAF staged a remarkable comeback in the last ten minutes and salvaged an unlikely draw. For the Royal Navy it was the cruellest of blows and the draw will seem like a gut wrenching defeat. However an Inter Service championship dream is still alive and the opening quarter gave ample evidence that they can still achieve it.
This game will be talked about for some time. For the RAF they will refer to the Great Escape for the Royal Navy perhaps they may turn to the horror category with their typical gruesome twists at the end. If they do they would be miss guided and perhaps a m...
15 th April 2013 was a Monday morning. Silvenusi Buinimasi was in equal measure frustrated and relieved. His frustration was that he was going to miss the Army Navy match. His relief was that the operation on a broken leg sustained against the RAF the Wednesday before had been successful. He said at the time that there was unfinished business and for those that know B he is man of honour and his word. If 2014 was a muted season for ‘B’ then 2015 has seen him back to his tackle breaking best. He made the bench against Mariner Nationale, to add to his six caps. Then last week he captained the Royal Navy against Devon in the 57-10 victo...
The recent games against the Marine Nationale saw six players awarded their prestigious Royal Navy Rugby Union cap by President Vice Admiral Sir Philip Jones. For the Women it was the first occasion that the match against the French was given cap status. For the men, when Edd Pascoe took the field late in the match it took to 718 the number of players who have been awarded caps since the first capped match against the Army in 1907.
The Women are naturally some way behind the Men in terms of the total number of capped players. However Alice Kightley became the 23 rd player to be awarded a cap since Vic Pervical won the first RN Women’s cap in 2011.
The Women...
It was the closest match of the series by far. However after taking an early lead the Royal Navy (Women) succumbed to a determined Marine Nationale (Feminines) side, who by the end had scored five tries to retain the trophy 27-3.
With the pre-match presentations complete the fifth match in the series between the Royal Navy (Women) and the Marine Nationale (Feminines) kicked off at a sun drenched US Portsmouth ground. With the sun and wind on their backs the home side started the better of the two teams and soon had the visitors under pressure. In the early exchanges it was strong running from Stacey Hargrave and Anne-Marie McIntyre that kept the Marine Nationale (Feminines) on the bac...
A pulsating first half saw the Royal Navy reach half time 19-13 up through a Ben Priddey try and four Jon Humphrey penalties. However a nervy start to the second half gave Marine Nationale fly half, Anon, the opportunity to put them ahead through kicks at goal before the win was secured through Perez’s late try.
For the opening minutes of this game the defence by both sides was intense and there was little space to move. The Royal Navy started the game the brighter, playing with the wind, and forced the Marine Nationale to concede penalties. Jon Humphrey was as accurate as ever and put the home side in to an early 6-0 lead.
At this stage it was the Royal Nav...
