RNRU Royal Navy Rugby Union

An extremely cold evening at HMS Collingwood did not dampen the spirits of the Royal Navy Rugby Union Women who got the season off to a great start, with a 32-5 win over Ellingham & Ringwood RFC. 

Right from the kick off the Royal Navy Women were robust in both attack and defence with Tegan Morley scoring two tries in the first 20 minutes. Although handling errors made it clear that the squad hadn’t played together for a while but this didn’t deter the team and they maintained momentum resulting in a third try by Rose Dixon converted by Suz Badger to take a 17-10 half time lead. 

The Navy line outs and scrums were well coordinated and this provided a great platform for the backs to do their magic, but more importantly set a sound baseline to work from over the season as they prepare for IS 2022. 

Increased grit and determination from Ellingham & Ringwood in the second half provided the Navy a stern test especially around the ruck where the side were rapidly starting to lose control of the penalty count. With the Navy playing high risk rugby at the breakdown they were able to win the ball back more often than not and paying counter attack rugby enabled Abi Ashby to score an early try in the second half to take the score to 22-0. 

To Ellingham & Ringwood’s credit their defence held strong, especially given the significant amount of the game spent in their half and within their 22, but despite this the Navy women continued to drive forward allowing Suz Badger to cross the line for the fifth try of the evening taking the score to 27-0. At no stage in the last quarter did Ellingham & Ringwood take their foot off the gas, which prevented the Navy from scoring anymore tries until the final 3 minutes of the game which saw Abi Ashby using her speed to score her second try of the evening. Ellingham & Ringwood’s commitment was rewarded in the final minute where they scored a try, to the delight of their supporters. Resulting in a final score of 32-5.

With the match being the first Senior Women’s rugby in nearly two years there was real positivity amongst the team. Scrum Half Olivia Critchley-Peddle said, “Having had two seasons apart it was amazing to get the ladies back together again. The atmosphere in camp this week has been exciting and everyone has been working hard back at their own clubs to prepare for services rugby.” 

Speaking about the match specifically Olivia went on to say “Tonight’s match against Ellingham and Ringwood was a great chance to blow away the cobwebs. It gave the team the opportunity to integrate the new players into the squad and set our baseline standard to build on for the rest of the season.”

The first match of any season can be difficult but the women have the added pressure this year of playing their first Army v Navy match at Twickenham Stadium in what will be the first Inter Service Championship since 2019.