England Women U20 v France Women U20

Traditional Army v Navy rivalry will be placed on hold at Esher RFC on Saturday when the top two service women rugby referees join forces to be the assistant referees at the England v France Women’s U20 International.  Both referee will no doubt enjoy the occasion but are also used to the big stage.  The Army’s leading women referee, Nikki O’Donnel, was recently seen in action when she refereed the Combined Services’ Women against the touring Australian Warriors and also the Navy v RAF U23 Inter Service match.  As for the Navy’s Jane Pizii she was the first women to referee a Women’s Inter Service match and was also officiating at Twickenham during last season’s Army Navy match as part of the match programme.  Good luck to both on Saturday.

Royal Navy Inter Command Round Up

With the focus easily shifting to the various representative fixtures being played it is perhaps easy to over look the progress of the Navy’s flagship Community Rugby Competition.  Round 3 and 4 have been played with all the command’s missing their Senior XV players.  However that hasn’t stopped the Naval AIr Command from continuing their winning ways and looking to add the Inverdale Trophy, to the Navy Knockout Cup and the Navy Sevens trophy that are already in the hands of HMS Seahawk.

Whilst the Navy were at Esher their Naval Air contingent would no doubt have been buoyed by the news from Yeovilton where the Command team ruthlessly despatched Portsmouth 72 – 0.  Having already beaten the Royal Marines and Plymouth the FAA are the only unbeaten side in the tournament and are three from three.

The Royal Marines are in second place with two win from three matches.  On 13 Feb they travelled to HMS Collingwood and returned with the spoils following a 32-10 win over Portsmouth Command and received a walk over this week when Scotland were unable to travel.

With the Scotland v Plymouth match being postponed until 20th March (due to the snow last week) the tournament table has a lobsided feel.  Portsmouth have one win from four, whilst Plymouth have one win from two with Scotland also having played two but yet to win.  It looks very likely that the finals day, scheduled for 27th March will again be between the FAA and the Corps but the third and fourth play off remains wide open.

Click here for the Alligin Photography Inter Command page

Royal Navy Senior XV – New Page

A new page has been posted with the images from the games that I attend in the 2013 Inter Services build up.  It can be viewed by clicking here.