The 2013 Inter-Service Championship kicks off with the Royal Navy travelling to RAF Halton, the new home of RAF Rugby, on 10 April 2013. The RN Senior Team kicks off at 1430, after the RN Women and RN Mariners have taken on their counterparts. After a successful win against Marine Nationale last week the RN Senior XV is in confident mood but will be conscious that last year, in very poor weather conditions, the RAF pushed them all the way, before a narrow 13-6 win.
Head coach, POET (AE) Owen Salmon commented ‘It will be a very competitive game on Wednesday, the RAF will be keen to dominate on their home patch and I am expecting a physical encounter. We have prepared well si...
With the game against OxBridge just around the corner and the Combined Services U23 squad preparing to form-up prior to the match a warm-up game against a Hampshire Select has been arranged for Sun 21 Apr 13 to be hosted by Gosport and Fareham Rugby Club (KO 14.00). This match will give the coaching staff the final opportunity to look at players and select a final squad for Twickenham. Momentum is also continuing for the November Barbarians fixture and all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle regarding coaching staff for the men's and ladies team are almost in place, with only one position in the CS Women's set-up remains for WO (Glen) Barraclough (CS Women's Head Coach) to propos...
On Wed 3 Apr at Burnaby Road, the RN(W) played the Marine Nationale Feminines for the annual "entente cordiale" trophy. The French team included 2 international players and so it was always going to be a difficult fixture for the RN(W). The first scrum of the game went to the RN(W), who then won a free kick. However, some fast hands and strong running by the French resulted in their first try of the game at 9 mins (0-7).
Some good MN(F) attacks were thwarted by a good RN(W) defence with effective tackles being made by Navy Captain, Lt (Charlotte) Fredrickson (COMUKTG) and LAC (Emily) Park (HMS Collingwood). Eventually, the MN(F) out flanked the Navy and scored a sec...
The first capped game of the season took place last night at the Home of Royal Navy Rugby at Burnaby Road, Portsmouth and saw the Royal Navy Senior XV take-on last year's Babcock Trophy winners the Marine Nationale.
The French having never won on British shores where looking to emulate last season's performance in Toulon where they outshone the Navy's by 24-3.
The game started at a fast tempo with the Navy having a great deal of the possession, which produced excellent attacking options which caught the French off-side and allowed POAET (Dave) Pascoe (RNAS Culdrose) to open the scoring with a penalty goal 3-0, 3mins.
Whether it was the cold weather or not but the han...
Weds night saw the culmination of the Royal Navy Inter Command Competition with the final between the holders the Naval Air Command (NAC) and last year's losing finalists the Royal Marines. This year's competition saw a new format with each of the 5 Command Teams playing each other and the top 2 going through to the final.
Earlier in the competition the Marines met the NAC at RNAS Yeovilton and had lost 17-0. They hoped that this game would see a change in their fortunes.
The Commands were all playing to get their hands on the Inverdale Trophy so named after former Royal Navy Surgeon Captain John Inverdale. The radio and television broadcaster John Inverdale, son of Captain John ...
