Sunday 11 March, a squad of 9 players from the Napoli NATO Lions Rugby Club travelled to Fondi to compete in a 7-a-side rugby tournament. Upon arrival at the ground there was not a blade of grass or any rugby posts to be seen, there was however, a 6-a-side Astroturf soccer field and that was used to host all the games (ouch!). The Lions produced a workmanlike performance in game 1, grinding out a 7:4 win over Partenope Napoli. An awesome display of hard hitting defensive play combined with creative ball handling in games 2 and 3 saw the Lions cruise to comprehensive 7:0 victories against both Ceccano and Amatori Formia. The Lions faced a Maori Fondi team in the last game of the pool stag...
When Navy Women’s fullback, LPT Lou Clark, was looking to improve her kicking skills she didn’t expect that Navy Rugby would team her up with former All Black test star, Andrew Mehrtens. It was quite fortuitous for Lou that when she first asked CPOPT Mick Cowie for advice on how to develop her kicking game the Navy Rugby Development Officer was in the middle of arranging a leadership camp for the Harlequins squad at HMS Collingwood. Dean Richards, Harlequins Director of Rugby and not someone noted for his tactical kicking, was delighted to help out and suggested Mehrtens. Mehrtens is currently in his second season with the Harlequins but prior to that was capped 70 times for ...
The first Development Weekend for potential U23 players will be held at HMS Collingwood on the weekend of 10-11 Mar 07. This is for players in the Portsmouth area and Ship and Unit PT staffs in the Portsmouth Base Port are to requested forward the names of potential players to the U23 Team Manager, LPT Helen McClement (07079 854681 or HMS WESTMINSTER-LPT), players can also contact LPT McClement directly. Players are to muster at the Watson Pavilion, HMS Collingwood at 0900 on Saturday 10 Mar 07. Former U23 players who will be under 23 on the 1 Sep 07 are also very welcome. There will be a further Development Weekend in HMS Raleigh for West Country in April, details to follow.
It wasn’t just at Croke Park that a little bit of history was made in Dublin over the last weekend of February 2007. Following a move up from U21 last year to U23 this season, the junior Combined Services squad also moved up a league by embarking on a truly international fixture list which will see them play Irish Colleges, Welsh Universities, Scottish Universities culminating in the traditional fixture against the English Universities at Twickenham in May on Army-Navy day. Friday 23 Feb 07 saw their opening fixture against the impressive Irish Colleges Rugby Union at the Suttonians Rugby Club in Dublin. Both teams based themselves in the same hotel and following an exhilarating 6-...
The “Lancaster Lions” enjoyed their first victory of the deployment in their second match, this time against the French Combined Forces team in Martinique. Having given Lt Emma Garey RN, the Club Secretary, a rousing send off in St Thomas, the Lions geared themselves for their second game without their number one fan and cheerleader. The Team were playing at dawn to avoid the searing temperature in the Caribbean. Despite superior numbers and the French team being members of the local league team, Captain OM “Chuck” Berry led his team out undaunted. A number of tactical and positional changes had been made since the last game which saw the veteran Combined Services...
