When Loz Morton won the Roger Sherratt Memorial Trophy in 2012 it was for a series of battling performances at scrum half. Against the RAF Women she had bossed the backrow trio of Charlie Lewis, Freddie Fredrickson and Helen Leach all match constantly cajoling them to keep driving forward. Though it was Sarah Mitchell who scored the try, as the Navy secured a narrow and extremely tense 7-5 win, it was Morton who was the Navy’s stand out player. A couple of weeks later, against the Army and winning her RN Women’s Cap, she had little ball to work with but her defence marked her out as player with an all round game and one with a real future in women’s ru...
When Capt Leigh Merrick presented the Cossack Sword to the Royal Navy Rugby Union with the guidance that the trophy was for ‘Ground Gained and Held’ and for the player that displays the battling qualities of the famed Cossacks, he no doubt envisaged that the Sword would regularly go to the backrow. As an uncompromising Number 8 himself, he will be no doubt be delighted to see Dave Fairbrother’s name engraved on the trophy as the third number 8 recipient. For Fairbrother the previous Number 8 winners were Andy Perry, who later became an established player with Newcastle Falcons, and a certain Bob Armstrong, who presented Dave with his playing jersey prior to ...
For the last fifteen years followers of Navy Rugby have taken for granted the name Pascoe appearing on the Royal Navy team sheet and with emergence of another man of Kernow, Edd Pascoe, this may well remain the case for the next fifteen years. Having already been the recipient of the Brian Weeks Memorial Trophy for young player of the year and made an impact on his first Royal Navy Rugby Union tour during the 2014 Commonwealth Cup campaign, Edd has now been awarded the Proud Heritage, Exciting Future Trophy.
The trophy is presented to the player displaying the most emerging talent within the Senior XV squad. It’s initial recipient, Dale Sleeman, developed in to the m...
The loss to the Royal Air Force was a deep dent to Army Rugby pride and there was always going to be a response. If the Royal Navy were able to hold them early on then perhaps the demons that haunted the Army at Aldershot might return. But an Army side playing without pressure is a dangerous foe and too often Navy ill discipline allowed the Army to escape from their goal line. Once they were on the front foot they posed too many questions for a Navy defence regularly facing a lack of numbers due to the Army’s multi phase attacks. The 98 th Army Navy game started with palpable tension in the sell out stadium. 81,116 passionate supporters were creating a fan...
A heavy loss and a convincing win mean that the two Navy sides travel to Kneller Hall with very different expectations after their matches against the RAF. For the Women their well documented disruptions this season showed as the RAF Women started slowly but produced a powerful performance for a well deserved win. For the Mariners, with Chirs Thompson to the fore, they gradually ramped up their game until the RAF Vultures had no answer to their strong running play. More of the same against the Masters on Saturday and the Mariners could deliver the Senior XV the perfect incentive before the afternoon’s main match.
Again the RN Women team have been forced to make...
