Pascoe A Name for both Past and Future : Royal Navy Rugby Union

Pascoe A Name for both Past and Future

For the last fifteen years followers of Navy Rugby have taken for granted the name Pascoe appearing on the Royal Navy team sheet and with emergence of another man of Kernow, Edd Pascoe, this may well remain the case for the next fifteen years. Having already been the recipient of the Brian Weeks Memorial Trophy for young player of the year and made an impact on his first Royal Navy Rugby Union tour during the 2014 Commonwealth Cup campaign, Edd has now been awarded the Proud Heritage, Exciting Future Trophy.

The trophy is presented to the player displaying the most emerging talent within the Senior XV squad. It’s initial recipient, Dale Sleeman, developed in to the mainstay of the Navy’s midfield. This season, with Dale, having left the Service has witnessed the 2012 winner, Nathan Huntley, flourish and fulfil his early promise as a flyhalf that can really command a game.

Edd Pascoe is clearly a player with a long future a head of him. The talented Royal Marine bandsman was an accomplished captain of the RNU23 side, renown for his galloping runs in broken field. However during his time in the Senior XV squad his technical skills have been developed and he now delivers an all round and very effective game. Having won his first cap against Marine Nationale from the replacements bench, he seized his first capped start, against the RAF, with both hands. A committed performance belied his inexperience and he was rightly rewarded with a well taken try, positioning himself perfectly for the inside offload after Huntley had sliced through the RAF defence.

It is perhaps fitting that Edd’s first real impact within the Senior XV squad happened in New Zealand during a Commonwealth Cup as it was eleven years earlier that the last member of the RM Band Service to be capped called time on his RN rugby career, in New Zealand after the 2003 Commonwealth Cup. French Horn player, Spencer Brown, had amassed sixteen caps in Navy colours as well as international honours for England. Edd Pascoe looks well set to surpass Spencer’s record and become the Navy’s most capped bandsman. Whether in the band through his trombone playing or on the field through his exciting and skilful play it looks as if Edd is well equipped to add to the Navy Rugby success that is synonymous with the famous Cornish name of Pascoe.