Following hot on the heels of a hugely successful Member Clubs Annual General Meeting in early December, I wanted to write out to all members of the RNRU family to offer an update on what has been another incredibly busy and diverse year for Navy rugby and to look forward to what will no doubt be an extremely rewarding 2016.
The representative rugby output remains buoyant. Although key results didn’t go the way of the Senior XV, the general performance during the Inter-Services was of a higher standard than previous years and the team finished convincing winners of the International Defence Rugby Cup (IDRC) Plate competition. The Mariners were deservedly crown...
Women’s rugby in 2015 closed out with a grass roots tag rugby tournament held at HMS COLLINGWOOD, inspiring the next generation of women’s rugby players in the service. Organised and run by the Royal Navy Community Rugby Coach (East) Dave Wakefield, endorsed by the RNRU(W) ADoR LtCdr Lynne Martin and supported by RNRU(W) players, grass roots rugby has been rolled out at HMS COLLINGWOOD and HMS SULTAN over the first half of the 2015/16 season. The aim being to inspire, grow and identify new female rugby players in order to grow the sport within the RN. The Women’s Tag Rugby Tournament consisted of 5 teams from HMS COLLINGWOOD (fielded 2 teams), HMS SULTAN, R...
The Royal Navy Rugby Union has launched its own dedicated image library that gives free access to a wide range of photographs that depict rugby in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. In association with Alligin Photography the library has been produced to allow easy access to digital photographs, which are provided both royalty free and without infringing photographers copyright. The library already includes a wide range of imagery from last season and will be regularly added to as each season progresses, including, where possible, matches from the RNRU’s community programme.
The library is hosted on a dedicated website but can be accessed from the main menu of the RN...
The 44 th Royal Navy Rugby Union Cup final was played in atrocious conditions at Devonport Services’ Rectory ground. Constant heavy rain was swept across the ground by strong westerly winds as the pitch quickly cut up into a soup of liquid mud. It is to both sides’ credit that such a good game of rugby was produced but by the end the final had been decided through the strength of HMS Seahawk’s scrum, as they secured a deserved 19-12 victory over 40 Commando Royal Marines.
When Luke Warrington led 40 Cdo RM out he knew that the first half was going to be crucial having elected to play into the worsening conditions. And despite an early penalty goal ...
