Those of you who were fortunate enough to travel to Paris last season will not need any convincing as to how seriously the Marine Nationale take their rugby. Apart from a period of eighty minutes their hospitality at the home of Stade Francais was only matched by their disappointment of losing to 'Les Rosbifs'. Well the return match, to be held at Portsmouth on Friday 13 March, looks certain to increase the standing of this already very prestigious fixture. Though only six matches have been played, the challenge has quickly established itself as a key fixture in both Navy's calandar. And if the RN were happy to steal away from last season with the spoils the French are certainly doing th...
Josh Drauniniu returns to actions for his club side, Exeter Chiefs this weekend when they take on table topping Leeds. The following article is courtesy of Exeter Chiefs, for more articles log on to: www.exeterchiefs.co.uk England sevens returnee Josh Drauniniu has said he has carried the hurt of Exeter Chiefs’ one-point defeat to Leeds Carnegie since that game on the second league weekend of the season. The winger is back into the starting line-up after a couple of weeks away with England sevens in Dubai and then added time to recover from the trip. Drauniniu said: “This is one of the hardest games of the season for us. Leeds are a really good team. They came down here and b...
HMS SEAHAWK Win Navy Rugby Plate Competiton HMS SUTHERLAND knew that they would have to re-produce the quality of rugby that despatched HMS ILLUSTRIOUS in the semi final if they were going to overcome HMS SEAHAWK in the Navy Rugby Plate Final. This was a tall order for the ship considering they had won their way through to the final only five days earlier and player availability and training had been hampered due to the ship’s involvement in Operational Sea Training. SUTHERLAND started by far the brighter of the two teams and were quickly into their stride. With a mobile pack of forwards producing quality ball for Donnelly at fly-half he was able to ensure that SUTHERLAND remained ...
A cold, crisp evening, an expectant crowd and two teams that had produced good rugby in the earlier rounds set the scene for an eagerly anticipated Navy Cup Final, at Burnaby Rd. It didn’t disappoint and the crowd including Cdre Rob Thompson, Naval Base Commander, and Cdre Al Rymer, HMS Sultan were kept on the edge of their seats until the final whistle. Playing at ‘home’ and having knocked out the holders HMS Heron in the semi final, HMS Nelson were probably slight favourites before kick off. Most expected that with Dennis and Cadmore in the backrow and John at scrum half they would produce enough quick ball for Wagstaff, Evans, Veisugusugu and Smallbone to show their ...
Portugal tunred out to be the big suprise on day one of the George Sevens. Wins against Kenya, Samoa and Wales ensured that they topped their group and go through to the quarter finals where they will play Argentina. New Zealand gained a degree of revenge against England who beat them in last week's semi final. Their 19 - 7 win in George, two tries from Tim Mikkelson, ensured a quarter final against USA. England meanwhile now have a tough quarter final against South Africa who last week beat England in the Dubai final. The fourth quarter final is Fiji against Samoa. Greg Barden felt that the team didn't take all their opportunities in the match against New Zealand and is aware that they ...
