Royal Navy Senior XV Produces a Positive Start to the International Defence Worl
The Navy made their debut in the inaugural IDWC 11 with a solid performance against an experienced Australian Federal Police team running out comfortable winners by 73 points to nil. The Navy side fielded some new faces with 5 players pulling on the dark blue shirt for the first time. On a surprisingly cold and damp afternoon in Viking Park, Canberra the Navy made a bright start with LS (Kev) McCrossan (HMS Lancaster) taking the Navy's kick off and driving the ball deep into AFP territory, after several phases of play a scrum was awarded to AFP on their own line, a mistake at the back of the scrum allowed Navy Skipper PO (Dave) Pascoe (RNAS Culdrose) to pounce on the loose ball and touch down for the opening score. 4 minutes later after a good lineout drive, last season's top try scorer hooker NA (Ben) Priddey (RNAS Culdrose) crashed over for his first of 4 tries. The afternoon was not to be all one way traffic as the AFP battled hard in the tackle and at the breakdown where their back row constantly disrupted the Navy's ball, 3 more tries followed before the half time whistle firstly another from Priddey, then ET (Dale) Sleeman (HMS Drake) went in under the posts after a good break and offload from LPT (Gareth) Cadmore (HMS Raleigh) and finally NA (Mika) Mua (RNAS Culdrose) scored after several phases of well constructed attack.
After half time the Navy were quickly back into their stride with Priddey claiming his hat trick, Capt (Tom) Glover RM (CTCRM) then picked a good line from full back to break the line a score out wide. Making his debut on the wing Logs Kurasa (HMS Dragon) scored the first of his afternoons brace, the second saw his turn of speed running in from his own half. There were further tries from Priddey, Sleeman, ET (Ian) Cooper (HMS Astute) and a special individual effort from AET (Jon) Humphrey (RNAS Yeovilton) who gathered the ball in his own half, kicked long and outstripped the defence to score.
The RN coaching staff were happy with the result but know there are areas to work on ahead of their next game, they are expecting a much stiffer test against an ACT Brumbies XV at T.G Milner Park Sydney on Wed 5 Oct.