With most of Royal Navy Rugby’s attention naturally focussed on events in New Zealand, Lauren Morton made a small piece of Royal Navy Rugby history at Allianz Park on Saturday when she became the first Royal Navy Women’s player to play in the RFUW Premiership.
Already established as one of the Navy’s and Combined Services leading players Loz, who is comfortable at either scrum half or centre, was named on the bench for Saracens Ladies in their third round league match against Darlington Mowden Park. The match was played as part of a double header with the Saracens v Sale Sharks Aviva Premiership match following on afterwards.
The game was Saracens Ladies fir...
Match report: RN v RNZN – Fri 26 Sep 14; Ngataringa Sports Complex, HMNZS PHILOMEL
Friday dawned a gorgeous spring day here in Auckland: mild, sunny intervals, with a gentle Westerly breeze.
At 1450, the two teams marched, stern-faced with intent, onto the pitch which was in near-perfect condition, having recovered well from last week’s rain and matches. National anthems were played and the RNZN team then performed their traditional Haka with the RN players standing respectfully on their own 10 metre line.
The RN kicked off the half with the wind mostly across the pitch but also slightly in the RN faces. Almost immediately, with RNZN in possession, the RN conceded a ...
Match report: RN v RAN – Mon 22 Sep 14; Ngataringa Sports Complex, HMNZS PHILOMEL
Match-day dawned to clear evidence that the weather forecast had been entirely accurate: pouring rain and a westerly gale threatened to prompt postponement. However, by 1300 the clouds had cleared and bright sunshine prevailed for the rest of the afternoon, albeit with a strong wind blowing diagonally across the pitch.
RN and RAN teams walked out from the changing rooms side-by-side, but with barely a glance across at each other. Both teams knew that a tough contest awaited them, and that the losers would struggle to achieve overall tournament success, whilst the victors would have b...
The Rugby World Cup (RWC) is coming to England next year and the Royal Navy Rugby Union (RNRU), under the banner of the ‘RWC Legacy Programme’, is investing in the future of the game within the Service in the build up to this prestigious event. The RWC Legacy Programme aims to grow the player and wider rugby community base by attracting new people to the sport. There are currently 5 main lines of activity: Basing, Festival, Unity, Volunteer and Community. The first activity to ‘kick-off’ was the RNRU Festival of Rugby.
Weymouth beach hosted the inaugural RNRU Beach Festival of Rugby on Wednesday 10 September. Storming the beach on a...
Two brief training camps at HMS Collingwood and HMS Sultan have enabled the Royal Navy Senior XV to hone their preparation for the inaugural Four Nations Maritime Cup and the seventh edition of the Commonwealth Navies Rugby Cup. It will be the first time that the Royal Navy have been back to New Zealand since the successful defence of the CNRC in 2003 but with two recent trips to Australia the challenges of playing in the Southern Hemisphere are not the unknowns they used to be.
Only one player remains from 2003, Dave Pascoe, who will be playing in his sixth Commonwealth Navies Rugby Cup , his fourth as captain. He will lead a squad that has a number of players who proved...
