With Greg Loydall’s U23 side having already secured the Inter Service trophy following wins in the first two rounds of the U23 Inter Service Championship it was left to another Navy team, this time of referees, to oversee the final match between the Army and the RAF. Andy Coles was in the middle supported by Assistant Referees, Stephen Woolley and Wolfie Power with Tim Bailey and Nigel Brunning ensuring the technical areas were well managed.
Andy Coles refereed a match where the Army were able to secure second place in the championship with a 21-7 victory over the Royal Air Force. All the teams will see a number of the players progress to their respective Senior squa...
The ninth award of the Brian Weeks Trophy was another that would have made the shrewd judge of talent smile with anticipation for the future of Navy Rugby. Brian was always keen to unearth and then nurture the Royal Navy stars of the future and he would have approved of the high tempo, all action game that has deservedly been acknowledged by Gareth John Rees’ peers in making him the U23 Player of the Season, recognised through the Brian Weeks Memorial Trophy.
Rugby is and always will be a team sport. However, it often requires an individual or two to ensure that the team comes together and fully fires on all cylinders. On the field Rees was the heart beat of th...
When Roger Parker invited Derek Rowland to succeed him as Secretary of the Royal Navy Rugby Union Referees’ Society he knew he was entrusting it to one of the most accomplished administrators that Navy refereeing has ever had the good fortune to call one of its own. He had already galvanised the training for new referees and sown the seeds for the most successful period in the Society’s history. Derek was made a Life Member of both the Royal Navy Rugby Union and the Referees’ Society when he retired from the Royal Navy in 1992, in recognition of the significant amount of time and energy he had given to help others and to further rugby union across the Naval ...
In 2010 the title was captured with a dogged, scrappy display. In 2015 the Royal Navy U23 entertained the strong and vocal home crowd to an enthralling and thrilling game of championship rugby. The Army played their part in one of the best U23 Service matches for a long time but a rousing finish to the first half put the Navy in command at the break, 15-10 and a professional second half performance was enough to close out the match and secure the Inter Services trophy.
A dry but heavy pitch with a strong wind blowing end to end was the backdrop to the game as Greg Loydall rallied his team before the kick off. Playing into the wind meant that the Royal Navy team requi...
You have to go back to 2010 for the last time the Royal Navy had a home tie to secure an Inter Service championship. That year after the match was delayed by 24 hours to enable the snow to clear from the USSG pitch and the Royal Navy secured the championship with a 6-3 win. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t how it had been planned but in atrocious conditions the Navy team showed a resilience in defence and a maturity, not to be distracted when plan A wasn’t working, that in many ways echoed the victory the class of 2015 secured last week at RAF Halton. Let’s hope it is a good omen.
And whilst talking about omens the Army have enjoyed their recent tr...
