A hot sunny day in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia was the scene for HMS Cumberland's third game of her final deployment. Having expected a full game of 15s, the game had to be reduced to 10s at the last minute due to lack of players from Jeddah RFC.
The game started at a ferocious pace with Cumberland scoring three tries in the first 10 minutes, two from ET ME Dale Sleeman and one from ET ME Ryan Lovett. Jeddah scored their first try of the game to make the score Jeddah 5 - 15 Cumberland. The score board continued to tick over in Cumberland's favour with more tries in the first half, the most notable of which was a try for AB Ollie Hicks (18) with his first touch of the ball since he ...
Having selected a strong team of 22, Portsmouth Command head coach took his squad north of the border to face Royal Navy Scotland in the first round of the Inter Command Championships on Wed 20 Oct 10.
Arriving in HM Naval Base Clyde twenty four hours prior to kick off allowed the squad to settle in and acclimatise to Scottish weather (it had been the coldest night of the year so far with temperatures dropping to -2°). A light training session on Tuesday evening shook off any pre-match worries and the team awoke on Wednesday morning to a gorgeous Scottish cold and clear day.
CPO Dane Smallbone (HMS Liverpool) led the Portsmouth team out at ...
The first outing of the season for the Royal Marines saw them gain victory over a very determined Plymouth Command at Devonport Services on Wed night. This was supposed to be a home fixture for the Royals but at the request of Plymouth they changed location and KO time to allow Plymouth a chance to field a team.
The Corps team made up of a mixture of new and seasoned players took time to gel together. This was to be expected as the squad, due to most units being involved in Pre-Deployment Training or returning from Operations, had only got together that morning. However, the old heads of Tom Evans-Jones, Gaz Evans, ‘Scouse' Anderson and ‘Bomber' Mills led the new...
Josh Drauniniu (HM Naval Base Portsmouth) celebrated his selection for Combined Services with a four-try haul as London Welsh comfortably beat Moseley 68 - 22. The scoring spree also means that Navy Chef Josh is currently the leading try scorer in the RFU Championship, with nine tries from just eight games.
For much of last season Josh was troubled by a series of injuries that restricted his appearances on the pitch. Although Josh recovered to contribute fully in the Navy's matches against the RAF and the Army, he was not quite at his sharpest. However with a good pre-season under his belt and playing for a resurgent London Welsh team, Josh has started the ...
With the domestic league season well underway, it was time for the Command players to stand up and be counted prior to the start of this year's competition. A newly formed TSG headed up by head coach PO Kai Blackett (RNLA Collingwood), with Assistant Coach CPO Sid Street (HMS Victory), POPT Helen Richardson (Collingwood) as Team Manger and Mrs Joyce Evans as physio were ready to look at all prospective players for this season's squad. Portsmouth based ships and units were very proactive in putting forward their players and 30 lads turned up at United Services Ground ready to be put through their paces.
Neil McRoberts, Head Coac...
