RNRU Royal Navy Rugby Union

With the Commonwealth Navy Rugby Cup (CNRC) reduced to just two teams, the only fixture of the tournament was played at Burnaby Road between the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).  The RN ran out convincing winners with a comprehensive 61-0 victory.

The Royal Navy Rugby Union did not take long to get established in the only game of the CNRC 2018; they set their stall out early and kept the pressure on their opponents for the full 80 minutes, finishing the game with 9 unanswered tries and 8 of them converted. 

The first score was not long in coming, the RN turned over from a RAN scrum and Fairbrother was on hand to pick up and touch down to chalk the first points onto the board, Humphrey from the touchline nailed his kick and within 10 minutes the RN were 7-0 up. Their dominance continued and Chambers scored the first of his three tries shortly after, having turned over in their own half the RN quickly countered and worked swiftly through the backs before the ball worked out wide to Chambers who cleared the line and added another 5 points. Humphrey nailed another kick from the touch line and within 20 minutes the RN were 14 – 0 to the good.

It was not long before Chambers scored his second of the night, the RN still on top they bossed the breakdown(s) and the following phases for Chambers to come inside and dive over the line, Humphrey again added the extras and the game began to rapidly slip away from the RAN, with the RN 21 – 0 ahead and cruising comfortably.

The RN ran in one more try before the RAN managed to find their way into the opposing 22, Raumakita scored his first of the night after a turnover catapulted the backs to run riot, they combined well to work the ball wide and back inside for Seta to break the line and run in unopposed. Humphrey definitely had his eye in and slotted the extra 2 for a 28 – 0 lead, with the RAN struggling to form any kind of attack on the boys in Dark Blue.

The RN were in complete control of the game, but with their dominance also came bouts of complacency and some questionable decision making. Their penalty count was high and the Referee had warned team captain Ben Priddey of their numerous infringements at the breakdown.  Shortly later Scott Makepeace took one for the team and was sent to the bin. In their opponents Red Zone, they could have been more clinical but with everyone fighting for their shirts eagerness outweighed tactics and the score, while still high was not what it could have been.

Throughout the sin bin period the RAN did not make the extra man count and the RN stood firm in defence and managed to weather the storm with no problems.

The last play of the first half saw the RN driving maul boss their way over the line with Fairbrother getting his brace and Humphrey nudging for another 2 and the referee bought the first half to its conclusion with the RN way ahead at 35  - 0.

The second half started just as the first had finished and the RN added another 7 points shortly after the re-start. Another driving maul from an RN lineout, this time Priddey was on hand to touch down off the back, with Humphrey adding another conversion and more misery to the RAN with a deficit of 42 – 0 and what was rapidly becoming a long night for the Aussies.

After 50 minutes Head Coach Pascoe began to ring in the changes, one of those was Sammy Davies, his second game in an RN shirt since undergoing knee surgery and it was not long before he added a try of his own to the tally.  Breaking the line after some great play by the backs he broke through to take the score to 47 – 0. The wind picked up for a brief time while Humphrey lined up his 7th kick of the night, this must have been the cause of breaking his 100% kicking record that night.

With the bench emptied the RN powered on through to score another 2 tries before the end of the game, Chambers completed his hat-trick and then moved on to setting Raumakita up for his second of the night.  The wind had died down on both occasions and normal services were resumed for Humphrey who slotted both kicks.

With the score at 61 – 0 and the clock turned red the referee drew the game to an end, resulting in the RN being crowned the Commonwealth Navies Rugby Cup Champions 2018.

The RAN did not pose a threat to the RN going forwards, regardless of this the defence did a good job in shutting them out over the course of the game. There will still be plenty of points for Pascoe and his team to work on for them to move forward into their next game against Richmond RFC later this month. This will be a much sterner test and offers the players another chance to stake their claim for a place in the final squad for the Inter Service Championship 2018.

Team list
1. K Beasley, 2. B Priddey (team captain), 3. C Warner, 4. E Pascoe, 5. S Makepeace, 6. S Matavesi. 7. J Hayler. 8. D Fairbrother, 9. G Rees, 10. N Huntley, 11. B Chambers, 12. G Lloydall, 13. S Raumakita, 14. E Myers, 15. J Humphrey, 
16. C Frogley, 17. A Wilman, 18. O Mason, 19. M Harvey, 20. B Fox, 21. S Davies, 22. R Dimmock-Williams, 23. C Moore.

Words POPT Samual Sims
Images: Royal Navy Rugby Union © John Walton