RNRU Royal Navy Rugby Union

Gloucester Rugby Try Out Naval Training

English internationals Mike Tindall and James Simpson-Daniel, were among the Gloucester Rugby Squad who took part in team-building training at the Royal Navy's premier training establishment in the South West on Thursday 19 January 2006. The group also included England internationals Adam Balding, Alex Brown, Peter Richards and South African Jake Boer. A group of seven senior players and four coaching staff spent half a day at HMS Raleigh in Cornwall hosted by the Royal Navy and their commercial partners Flagship Training Limited. The Zurich premiership players faced the challenge of saving a sinking ship holed by enemy attack in high seas. The exercise took place in a high tech simulator which fills with water and lists from side to side, a very testing environment for the players mentally and physically and an excellent facility for building team work, communication and initiative. Commodore David Pond, the Commanding Officer of HMS Raleigh, who is also a former Navy rugby player and is a Vice-President of the Royal Navy Rugby Union, said: "A team ethos, dedication and self-discipline are among the fundamental characteristics that we in the Armed Forces share with professional sportsmen and women. The training we carry out at HMS Raleigh is designed to instil these values in our new recruits as they are transformed from civilians into sailors. We are pleased to be sharing our training with the coaching staff and players from Gloucester Rugby. Sport is a major part of Service life and this is a wonderful opportunity for some of our young sailors to meet a selection of high profile players who have excelled in their chosen profession." The Zurich premiership side have just returned from Bucharest where they beat Bucuresti by 27 points to 13 in European Challenge Cup. Gloucester Head Coach Dean Ryan said: "We approached the Royal Navy and asked whether we could come down and do some work with the senior player group as part of a team building and management programme. We are very excited about the opportunities it will provide us and it is something that will be a huge but great challenge."