RNRU Royal Navy Rugby Union

It was a first away match of the season and the first match under lights for the Royal Navy U23s as they took on a Solent Select XV on Wednesday 15th September.

The Navy young guns made the trip along the A27 to Oakland’s Park, home of Chichester RFC. The club from West Sussex’s county town made up the bulk of the Solent Select XV and were selected by former Royal Navy Coach Scott Ashley.

It was hoped that the second outing of the season would provide Assisstant Director of Rugby Owen Salmon the opportunity to check the depth of his squad and to see if any future stars emerged from the most recent training camp. Within moments of the match starting the Solent team had managed to find their way across the whitewash and had seemingly caught the Navy unawares, the try was converted to give the home side a 7-0 lead.

But the Royal Navy stood their ground and showed their determination ensuring that the match would be a edgy affair. With the wind in their sails the Navy were on the front foot and an opportune snipe through a gap from the base of a ruck by scrum half AET Jay Toogood was enough to sneak across the try line and enable the RN to level the scores 7-7. There were no more scores before half time and unfortunately 10 minutes into the second half a serious injury to an Under 23 player resulted in the match being stopped early with the game tied.

The Under 23s are on the road again in 2 weeks time as they travel to Bristol to take on UBRFC (University of Bristol RFC). The match on the 29th of September will be under lights with a 19:00 kick off at Coombe Dingle Sports Complex.

Team list:

1 Seviour, 2 Thurgood, 3 Johnson, 4 Williams, 5 Hogan, 6 Jenkins, 7 Leyland- Jones (C), 8 Walker, 9 Toogood, 10 Manson, 11 Penrose-Tomms, 12 Prentice, 13 Raynor, 14 Dale, 15 Rowsell

Replacements: Squibb, Davison ,Francklin, Wright, Newcombe, Burton, Owen, Thorne, Nialls

Photography: © Keith Woodland