Evans Exiled and Navy Rugby’s Old Warriors

Gaz Evans Exiled by Exiles

Navy hooker/number eight Gaz Evans made his debut for his new club London Welsh in the 40-31 defeat away to Premiership rivals Bath.  However Director of Rugby Lyn Jones felt Gaz needed some more game time in his legs.  Consequently, after a very tough week’s training, Evans was exiled from the exiles and turned out for London Scottish in their warm up game against Harlequins.

 

A warm up game it certainly was with the mercury showing 30 degrees in the shade and no air, all the players were thankful for the enforced water breaks.  Gaz played all of the second half when Scottish rallied a little with Gaz showing some fine running lines in the loose and becoming embroiled with his opposite number following one scrum.  Somethings never change, they were probably talking through the merits of the new scrum engagement sequence.

The match was played at the Stoop, a mere long pass from Twickenham stadium and if Saturday’s showing was anything to go by then Navy Rugby can be hopeful that come the 2013 Army Navy game Gaz Evans will be again at the forefront of the Navy’s pack and looking to last the full eighty minutes after last season’s injury enforced early departure.  London Welsh’s biog of Gaz can be found here, which includes an almost Pascoesque hairstyle in his official photo!

Navy Rugby’s Warriors

A predecessor of Gaz’s at London Welsh was former Navy winger Josh Drauniniu.  Those who have followed the try scoring record of Josh would not be surprised to read the Worcester Warriors website headline “Double Try Hero Josh”  The headline was in respect to the Warriors win over Scarletts.  However the Josh in question was fellow fijian Josh Matavesi.  However the former Navy man, playing his first game of the pre season did receive praise from both Matavesi and Worcester’s DoR, Richard Hill, for his abrasive defence!    This is a new aspect of Josh Drauniniu’s game even if he did spend ten minutes in the bin because of his robust and never say die (letting go) defence. Could be an interesting season at Sixways.

Josh has been joined at Worcester by two former backrow players who wore the Navy shirt with pride.  Former Royal Marines Corin Palmer and Mark Hewitt are now part of the Warrior’s back room staff.

Corin Palmer made his debut in 1993 and played in four Army Navy matches through until 1996 along with two games against the RAF in 1993 and 1996.  In 1995 he was part of the Inter Service winning side whilst in 1996 he was joined in the backrow by Mark Hewitt who was recalled to Navy colours to win his eighth and ninth caps.  Mark had made his debut in 1985 and was also part of the 1987 Inter Service winning team.

Since leaving the Royal Marines Corin has been the director of London Irish’s academy before moving west to be the General Manager at Bristol Rugby.  Prior to joining Worcester Warriors as the Operations Director he was with Premier Rugby as their Head of Academies.

Mark, who was selected in Bob Armstrong’s Navy Select XV,  has been recruited to bring a little back bone and Marine grit to the Sixway’s academy.  He was recruited from Spain where he had been successful with both their representative structure and league side La Vila.  Prior to this Mark had been Head Coach at the Cornish Pirates as well as Head of the Gloucester Academy and Head Coach to the West Indies.

Worcester’s service connections do not end there.  They have also recruited the scourge of Navy defences from the nineties, former Royal Air Force fly half / full back Paul Hull.  Paul has been recruited as a talent scout so if you see him on the touch line at a Navy match then………………………

With Exeter, Bath and Harlequins having current or former Navy Rugby personnel involved in their playing departments that makes half of the Premiership clubs that have a Navy Rugby connection.

Long Leave for Lee

The Army Rugby Union website has announced that former skipper and stalwart as their openside flanker Mark Lee has played his last game of Service Rugby.  The former captain of the Scottish sevens team is leaving the Army to take up his new life as a farmer in Scotland.  Although Mark has often been a thorn in Navy Rugby’s side he has also done an immense amount of good for service rugby generally, has always played the game in the right spirit and given his all for whatever team he represents.

Mark won pretty much every accolade in service rugby including leading his team to a number of Inter Service titles. He was always popular with the Navy contingent when playing in the white of Combined Services and his professionalism and skill at ready a game was shown when he won the man of the match award in the International Defence World Cup final played last year in New Zealand.

He will be missed and I am sure that all service rugby followers wish him well in his second career.  The Army Rugby Union announcement is here.

Rugbytown USA – International Defence Sevens

Rugbytown USA is at Infinity Park, home of Glendale RFC, Denver, Colorado.  At this time of year it usually hosts the US Inter Service XV-a-side rugby championship but in 2012 this has been swapped to the shortened game partly because of the increase in profile sevens now has with its inclusion in the Olympic programme at Rio.

A weekend of rugby involved the five US service teams (coast Guard, Marines, Air Force, Army and Navy) and five international sides including the British Army and the RAF Spitfires along with the French Armed Forces and two Australian Army teams.  With the Royal Navy travelling to Sydney in October, to defend the Commonwealth Navies Rugby Cup, the Sharks were unable to travel.

The format was two groups on the Saturday with the US teams all in the single group and playing for their US Championship.  The international teams were playing for an International Championship trophy.  On the second day there was a cross over of the two groups, depending on seeding from day one, to find the over all tournament champion.  The full results can be viewed here.

After day one there was only one unbeaten side, the British Army , who only conceded one try all day, to the Australian Army Gold team.  With the French Armed Forces runners up in the group the two sides played again for the International Championship.  It was one way traffic and rarely can 63 unanswered points have been conceded in the fourteen minute format.  For the avoidance of doubt it was the French who ended up losing 63-0.

Ealier the RAF Spitfires had beaten the Australian Army Gold side 26-12 to secure the third place in the International section.  This was a closer match and in the first half some very poor RAF defence allowed the Australians to be competitive.  However the Aussies could not cope with the pace of Lloyd Evans (one to watch) who ended up scoring a hat trick as the RAF secured a deserved victory.

Navy Sink Army

I always enjoy such headlines!  The US Navy played the US Army for the third place in their domestic tournament.  The first half was a scrappy affair with the Navy coming back from conceding an early score to turn around 7-5 up.  However they eased away in the second half to take a 26-5 lead before the US Army secured a consolation score near the final whistle.

US Marine Corps Win Domestic Honours

The US Marine Corps only made the final on points difference from the US Navy and were up against tournament favourites the US Air Force.  A close game saw the scores tied 19-19 at half time before the Air Force scored a break away try early in the second half for a 26-19 lead.  Two further Marine Corps tries seemed to have secured the trophy as the match entered its last seconds.  However a USMC error gifted the Air Force possession and they scored close to the posts as the final hooter sounded.  33-31 behind the US Air Force had a kick to send the game in to extra time.   However the kick was hooked and the Corps were crowned 2012 champions, to much whooping and hollering.

International Defence Sevens – Gold, Silver and Bronze

During the cross over matches the international sides proved too strong for the US teams.  The RAF fought their way past the Australian Army, US Army and US Navy to top the bronze group where they met the third placed team in the gold medal group.  A convincing 54 – 7 win over the US marine Corps in the bronze medal play off ensured they returned home with something.

For the British Army it was seven tournament wins from seven for the 2012 season.  Both the US Air Force and the US marine Corps were despatched with ease before they met the French for the third time.   A 68 – 12 victory secured the gold medal with France taking silver.

A good tournament and although the format was interesting it does show that for service teams with very busy operational deployment patterns the shortened game could easily become a good regular world cup format.  The Sharks would have been in the hunt for medals if they had kept up their progress of this season, however lets hope the players take that form to Sydney in October for the Commonwealth Navies Cup.

Under 23 Fixtures – Changes

Last season the Navy U23’s produced some exciting rugby in their shortened season.  This season with the Senior squad away in Australia the earlier matches will give a number of new players the perfect stage to show their promise.  There have been a couple of changes to their fixture list which I believe is now as follows:

 

 

 

 

Sunday 30th September away to United Hospitals at Teddington RFC

Wednesday 10th October away to Chichester at Chichester RFC

Saturday 27th October away to Oxford University at OURFC

Sunday 4th November home to Cambridge University at Burnaby Road

Friday 16th November first round of U23 Inter Services home to RAF at Burnaby Road

Friday 23rd November away to the Army at Aldershot, Inter Service championship

Paralympics, London 2012

With the GB success in the Olympics the attention is now firmly on the London 2012 Paralympics which includes wheelchair rugby (a form of murder ball).  The GB team CEO is former Navy Rugby Chairman David Pond.  He will see his team start the competition against reigning champions and tournament favourites USA.  However TeamGB will be buoyed by their 52-51 extra time win over the silver medalists from Beijing, Australia, in the recent London Invitational Wheelchair Rugby Tournament.  You can follow the competition here and here.