RNRU Royal Navy Rugby Union

On a clear cool evening in Bar, Montenegro at the impressive Floodlit Stadium Madzarica, a match was played between the Montenegro Presidents XV and HMS Albion RFC. The match was attended by supporters from Montenegro including three members of Parliament, members of the British Embassy to Montenegro and members of HMS Albion’s Ship’s Company. The event was streamed live on Montenegrin TV. It was agreed before KO that the match would be played in 20” quarters with rolling subs to allow all players an opportunity to play. Both sides had fielded equal sized squads and the Montenegrin RFU wanted to use this fixture to develop strength in depth for its Union, so had players from experienced internationals to some that had only played a few times before.

Albion kicked off to Montenegro who started with a strong carry but was met with impressive defence particularly by CPL Cal Southgate and MNE Deano Seals. This created a penalty for holding on, Albion opted for the lineout but the ball was stolen by the Montenegrin’s greater height and organisation. This proved to be an area of frustration for Albion for the rest of the evening. With the ball in hand Albion was moving it well with good clean passes making ground. But the Montenegrin defence was consistent and Albion could not get much further than the Montenegrin 22. Montenegro had some strong passages of play but would often have to try to kick ahead due to the strong tackles by Albion. This resulted in a match played out between the 22 lines with no side gaining a score. Montenegro mainly had the upper hand in the scrum from which they could normally rely on getting a penalty. This meant Albion was not getting a lot of first phase possession.

At the 20” mark, Albion and Montenegro started to use the bench with Albion changing its whole backline. The change in personnel did little to affect the way the game was being played out. However during this period LET (WE) Mike McNellie was replaced by S/Lt Floyd due to a HIA; an indication of the consistently hard tackles that were being made in the centre of the pitch. By 34” the President's XV had created a scrum penalty choosing for the first time to kick to goal. Their No 10 (Popvic Sidran) kicked the goal 3-0. After the resulting KO the Montenegrins again worked the ball up the pitch and when Albion gave a penalty away for hands in the ruck this opportunity was also converted by Sidran, 6-0 in the 44th minute.

Half Time and Albion made another raft of changes across the back line and changed some of the pack. During the first quarter of the second half, the Montenegrin’s started to gain more of a foothold in Albion territory. They could consistently bring fresh players into the pack which Albion could not match and finally with one missed tackle Montenegro scored a try in the far right corner through Vucicevic Dusan. 11-0 with the conversion missed by their No 9 (Raonic Novica). Additionally and to compound matters, LET (WE) Buster Brown was sin binned for a high tackle in trying to stop the Montenegrins scoring. With the player advantage, Montenegro's deep kick-off allowed them to worked their way down to the right hand corner, where from a line out the ball was moved across the pitch until they had created a one man overlap allowing their right wing, Mijuskovic Martin. 16-0 quickly became 18-0 after another accurate kick from Sidran.

In the last quarter after another host of changes, Albion stepped up again and spent most of the quarter in the Montenegrin half with play directed by S/Lt Jamie Wiltshire ably supported by MNE Dean Seals. In the backs, good running lines were met by stiff Montenegrin resistance and Albion could not score the points that their creative play deserved. When LH (AH) Jon Lowe took a blow to the head after driving up the field, this meant the last 10 mins were played with uncontested scrums which suited Albion’s desire to play faster.

In an attempt to score a try, kickable penalties were turned down to go for either a lineout, scrum or quick tap penalty but the score line remained 18-0. MNE Deano Seals was nominated Man of the Match for Albion for the sheer determination of his defensive effort but all who played could have been nominated for the way they played against a stronger set of players.

Team List: LNA (HA) Jon Lowe, MNE Billy Cartwright, Lt Garath Veal, Lt Tom Chatwin RN, Slt Angus Leigh, AB Tom Hind, ET (ME) Rob Thompson, ET(ME) Nathen Beard, SET Andy Coopy, SGT Bungy Williams RM, MNE Doddie Dodds, CPL Cal Southgate RM, MNE Dean Seals, LCPL William Dobinson-Last RM, Mid Allen Smallman.

Replacements: S/Lt Jamie Wiltshire, Lt Alex Ainscough RN, LET Mike McNeillie, MNE Kyle Telford, MNE Jim Kirton, PLET (ME) Dave Jones, LS Issac Walsh, MNE Chaivivat Mueankeaw, LET (ME) Jonny Stupple, S/Lt Dave Floyd, L Phot Finn Hutchins, ET Joey Croft, ET (WE) Roy Kean, LET (WE) Jordan Brown, LET (WE) Lewis Hutchins, AB Conner Tweedie.

Words by Bruce Walmsley

Images by Royal Navy/ LPhot Finn Hutchins