The Royal Navy Rugby Union already has a strong track record of friendship and collaboration with Rugby Clubs around the Globe. Recently, Rugby Development Officer, Ady Cherrington reaffirmed this with a visit to Portugal and one of their local clubs, St Julians.
Having already reached out by providing some essential rugby kit to a team in need in 2018, Ady had forged new friendships in Portugal. A spring clean of the Royal Navy Rugby Union Rugby Store provided him with another opportunity to help the team. He was able to collate a sizeable donation of staple rugby equipment for them. A germ of a plan began to grow with the club’s executive,...
This Saturday Sam Matavesi will make his world cup debut for Fiji against Australia in Japan.
Last season the Cornish Fijian was balancing a busy day job based at RNAS CULDROSE, while playing for Cornish Pirates in the English Championship. Throughout, Matavesi was simply outstanding and was deservedly scouted for Top 14 duties by the French powerhouse, Toulouse. Since then he’s gone from strength to strength, and become the first choice hooker in a world class Fijian front row. In addition to playing International and Top 14 rugby, Sam represented the Navy throughout the 2019 Inter Services campaign.
It has been a proud year for the Matavesi family with Sam being joined by h...
On Sunday, 15th September 2019, a lovely hot sunny afternoon, a 30 U23 Sailors and Royal Marines gathered at Burnaby Road, Portsmouth for the second game in a series of matches to identify, assess, develop players and prepare a team to contest the Inter Services U23 championship to be played in November. Dorset & Wiltshire U20 were the opponents and they are preparing for the RFU U20 national competition.
For much of the first quarter both sides played at a fast and furious error strewn pace in an attempt to gain an advantage. Penalties, forward and dropped passes, lost line outs and missed kicks to touch were the order of the day. However as players settled down there were some g...
When asked to think of rugby clubs with strong Royal Navy Rugby Union connections you immediately think of Devonport Services RFC in Plymouth and United Services Portsmouth. Now let’s add Gosport and Fareham RFC to the mix; not because of anything enshrined by official decree but because of the significant number of RN, MOD Civil Servants, Military Contractors and ex-service personnel having a huge influence on the club.
Gosport and Fareham RFC, for those not in the know, is a rugby club located in Hampshire, with home games and training taking place at Gosport Park on Dolphin Crescent in sight of Haslar Hospital, the Institute of Naval Medicine (ish) and Fort Blockho...
The first official rugby tournament between defence forces, the King’s Cup, was held after the First World War. New Zealand were unbeaten in all but one of their matches; setting a pattern for a century of rugby dominance. So while the rugby nations of the world are battling it out for the William Webb-Ellis Trophy, 10 nations are sending their defence forces’ rugby teams to Japan from 9-23 September 2019 to contest the third International Defence Rugby Competition (IDRC). Soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines will gather to compete for the coveted Arthur Harrison VC Cup.
The competition was first held jointly in Australia and New Zealand alongside the Rugby Wor...
