Chairman’s Christmas Message
Following hot on the heels of a hugely successful Member Clubs Annual General Meeting in early December, I wanted to write out to all members of the RNRU family to offer an update on what has been another incredibly busy and diverse year for Navy rugby and to look forward to what will no doubt be an extremely rewarding 2016.
The representative rugby output remains buoyant. Although key results didn’t go the way of the Senior XV, the general performance during the Inter-Services was of a higher standard than previous years and the team finished convincing winners of the International Defence Rugby Cup (IDRC) Plate competition. The Mariners were deservedly crowned Inter-Services champions at Kneller Hall and the previous years’ uncharacteristic mistakes and poor discipline on the pitch were consigned to history and replaced by a huge collective effort, underpinned by enormous self-belief, against the Army. Further successes were enjoyed by the Sharks, who won the North Dorset 7s and of course most recently the U23, who deservedly won the 2015/16 Inter-Service Championship after convincing victories over both the Army and RAF. The last time the U23s won was 2010, which coincidentally was the last time the Senior XV lifted the Babcock Trophy - Dare to Believe!! Although the Women’s XV struggled last season, they continued to develop as a squad and maintained a level of gritty morale that far exceeded their results. Next year will see changes to the coaching and management setup, as well as their fixture list, which should allow the development of new players early in the season and provide a more graduated build-up to the Inter-Services.
Community rugby thrived during the 2014/15 season. The President’s XV continues to grow its output and utility, which included an undefeated tour to Estonia and Latvia. Deployed ships and units played 28 matches overseas - of note was HMS Argyll who played 11 games in 10 countries at 3 national stadiums, involving over 50 players during their 6-month deployment in 2014. The Fleet Air Arm won the Inverdale Cup (beating the Western Region who reached the final for the first time in ten years) and after narrowly losing to Britannia Naval College in 2014, HMS Seahawk re-established themselves as the top unit side in the Navy by beating 40 Commando to win the Navy Cup on a rain soaked night at Devonport Services in early December; that's 4 victories in 6 years - quite some achievement. Under the tutelage of a full-time Rugby Development Officer, we continue to employ two Community Rugby Coaches, which has seen a total of 1469 personnel (including 212 women) introduced to rugby through our grass roots programme. The Community team has also overseen the highly successful basing of USA and Namibia in Portsmouth and Plymouth respectively during the Rugby World Cup and managed a plethora of other activities including: Armed Forces Day Sport for All, Rugby World Cup activity, notably the Webb Ellis Trophy tour and Beach Rugby Festival in Weymouth, National Girls Showcase and Services tag Festival at Twickenham, and coaching development across the RNRU. Notwithstanding the many successes outlined above, it would be remiss of me not to mention that a number of constraints are been felt at the grass roots level, which is limiting our ability to play rugby this season. These issues, which include manning, transport, medical/injury and a very taught operational programme, are well understood and every effort is being made to improvise, adapt and overcome. Work is also ongoing to consider ways of improving recruitment, tracking and career management of players within the Service. It is worth remembering that our rugby strategy is dependent on delivering as wide a base to the playing pyramid as possible, so that we have a greater pool to select from for our representative output. In turn this will allow us to continue to be competitive at Twickenham, which is now a totemic event. Last year we had a capacity crowd, with tickets sold out 6 weeks before the match - don’t be disappointed this year, get your tickets early!
Our two RFU accredited clubs continue to flourish too. US Portsmouth RFC had an incredible 2014/15 season and were the only club in the country to attain full points (undefeated) and a full complement of bonus points in any RFU league - 18 games, 18 wins with 18 bonus points. Devonport Services RFC have a growing youth section and plans to improve the Rectory have advanced considerably in the last 12 months; news that the club were allowed to re-enter the Devon cup this season is another major step-forward.
Behind the scenes we have progressed markedly in terms of governance and strategic head marks. We conducted a ‘first principles’ review of all activity we currently undertake and carefully mapped it to our goals. This has allowed us to be clearer about what is essential and desirable activity and differentiate between charitable and trading activity to better inform balance of investment decisions. After a successful Special General Meeting in July, to vote in our new Articles of Association, we incorporated as a limited company in September this year. The next step is to establish an independent trading company with an expectation that by summer 2016 we will have moved the RNRU onto a more sustainable footing. Sponsorship has increased this year both in monetary terms and in terms of commitment (longer contracts); we also now have a functioning on-line shop. In sum, we continue to be in a healthy financial position, but of course cannot rest on our laurels.
All this progress and success is down to a dedicated band of volunteers and key enablers, without who we would not be able to function effectively. It would be impossible and unfair to single out individuals, as this is a collective effort - we most certainly have an all-of-one-company approach to Royal Navy Rugby. In recognition of this I am pleased to announce that we are introducing a new event into the calendar. We intend to morph the Life Member and Vice President’s dinner into an RNRU dinner. Those invited will include all players, volunteers, sponsors, key stakeholders and a number of supporters of the RNRU. This will likely take the form of a black tie dinner/dance/summer ball at HMS Dolphin (Fort Blockhouse); so please annotate the 22 July 2016 in your diaries and more details will be promulgated in due course. Hopefully we will be celebrating another successful season, and in particular victory against the Army on 30 April 2016.
All that remains for me to do is to wish you all a merry Christmas and prosperous New Year. I look forward to seeing you in the near future; there are plenty of events in our packed structured season to look forward to. Finally, bring your friends - opportunities exist for players, coaches, officials, volunteers and spectators; we want you all to be involved in developing the club, growing our network and membership, and promoting the brand and values of the RNRU.
Colonel Ewen Murchison DSO MBE
Chairman, Royal Navy Rugby Union
Following hot on the heels of a hugely successful Member Clubs Annual General Meeting in early December, I wanted to write out to all members of the RNRU family to offer an update on what has been another incredibly busy and diverse year for Navy rugby and to look forward to what will no doubt be an extremely rewarding 2016.
The representative rugby output remains buoyant. Although key results didn’t go the way of the Senior XV, the general performance during the Inter-Services was of a higher standard than previous years and the team finished convincing winners of the International Defence Rugby Cup (IDRC) Plate competition. The Mariners were deservedly crowned Inter-Services champions at Kneller Hall and the previous years’ uncharacteristic mistakes and poor discipline on the pitch were consigned to history and replaced by a huge collective effort, underpinned by enormous self-belief, against the Army. Further successes were enjoyed by the Sharks, who won the North Dorset 7s and of course most recently the U23, who deservedly won the 2015/16 Inter-Service Championship after convincing victories over both the Army and RAF. The last time the U23s won was 2010, which coincidentally was the last time the Senior XV lifted the Babcock Trophy - Dare to Believe!! Although the Women’s XV struggled last season, they continued to develop as a squad and maintained a level of gritty morale that far exceeded their results. Next year will see changes to the coaching and management setup, as well as their fixture list, which should allow the development of new players early in the season and provide a more graduated build-up to the Inter-Services.
Community rugby thrived during the 2014/15 season. The President’s XV continues to grow its output and utility, which included an undefeated tour to Estonia and Latvia. Deployed ships and units played 28 matches overseas - of note was HMS Argyll who played 11 games in 10 countries at 3 national stadiums, involving over 50 players during their 6-month deployment in 2014. The Fleet Air Arm won the Inverdale Cup (beating the Western Region who reached the final for the first time in ten years) and after narrowly losing to Britannia Naval College in 2014, HMS Seahawk re-established themselves as the top unit side in the Navy by beating 40 Commando to win the Navy Cup on a rain soaked night at Devonport Services in early December; that's 4 victories in 6 years - quite some achievement. Under the tutelage of a full-time Rugby Development Officer, we continue to employ two Community Rugby Coaches, which has seen a total of 1469 personnel (including 212 women) introduced to rugby through our grass roots programme. The Community team has also overseen the highly successful basing of USA and Namibia in Portsmouth and Plymouth respectively during the Rugby World Cup and managed a plethora of other activities including: Armed Forces Day Sport for All, Rugby World Cup activity, notably the Webb Ellis Trophy tour and Beach Rugby Festival in Weymouth, National Girls Showcase and Services tag Festival at Twickenham, and coaching development across the RNRU. Notwithstanding the many successes outlined above, it would be remiss of me not to mention that a number of constraints are been felt at the grass roots level, which is limiting our ability to play rugby this season. These issues, which include manning, transport, medical/injury and a very taught operational programme, are well understood and every effort is being made to improvise, adapt and overcome. Work is also ongoing to consider ways of improving recruitment, tracking and career management of players within the Service. It is worth remembering that our rugby strategy is dependent on delivering as wide a base to the playing pyramid as possible, so that we have a greater pool to select from for our representative output. In turn this will allow us to continue to be competitive at Twickenham, which is now a totemic event. Last year we had a capacity crowd, with tickets sold out 6 weeks before the match - don’t be disappointed this year, get your tickets early!
Our two RFU accredited clubs continue to flourish too. US Portsmouth RFC had an incredible 2014/15 season and were the only club in the country to attain full points (undefeated) and a full complement of bonus points in any RFU league - 18 games, 18 wins with 18 bonus points. Devonport Services RFC have a growing youth section and plans to improve the Rectory have advanced considerably in the last 12 months; news that the club were allowed to re-enter the Devon cup this season is another major step-forward.
Behind the scenes we have progressed markedly in terms of governance and strategic head marks. We conducted a ‘first principles’ review of all activity we currently undertake and carefully mapped it to our goals. This has allowed us to be clearer about what is essential and desirable activity and differentiate between charitable and trading activity to better inform balance of investment decisions. After a successful Special General Meeting in July, to vote in our new Articles of Association, we incorporated as a limited company in September this year. The next step is to establish an independent trading company with an expectation that by summer 2016 we will have moved the RNRU onto a more sustainable footing. Sponsorship has increased this year both in monetary terms and in terms of commitment (longer contracts); we also now have a functioning on-line shop. In sum, we continue to be in a healthy financial position, but of course cannot rest on our laurels.
All this progress and success is down to a dedicated band of volunteers and key enablers, without who we would not be able to function effectively. It would be impossible and unfair to single out individuals, as this is a collective effort - we most certainly have an all-of-one-company approach to Royal Navy Rugby. In recognition of this I am pleased to announce that we are introducing a new event into the calendar. We intend to morph the Life Member and Vice President’s dinner into an RNRU dinner. Those invited will include all players, volunteers, sponsors, key stakeholders and a number of supporters of the RNRU. This will likely take the form of a black tie dinner/dance/summer ball at HMS Dolphin (Fort Blockhouse); so please annotate the 22 July 2016 in your diaries and more details will be promulgated in due course. Hopefully we will be celebrating another successful season, and in particular victory against the Army on 30 April 2016.
All that remains for me to do is to wish you all a merry Christmas and prosperous New Year. I look forward to seeing you in the near future; there are plenty of events in our packed structured season to look forward to. Finally, bring your friends - opportunities exist for players, coaches, officials, volunteers and spectators; we want you all to be involved in developing the club, growing our network and membership, and promoting the brand and values of the RNRU.
Colonel Ewen Murchison DSO MBEChairman, Royal Navy Rugby Union - See more at: http://www.navyrugbyunion.co.uk/rnru/chairmans-message#sthash.QFJ9D8Nw.dpuf