By Lieutenant Commander Charlie Neve

With a no inter-service caps agreement for this fixture, a good performance from the Dark Blue youngsters illustrated how well the side is developing, but as coaching advisor Brett McCormack (Plymouth Albion) said, “There is still a long way to go and much work to do before the Army v Navy fixture at Twickenham on Saturday 1st May.”

At Aylesbury RFC, refereed by the Army’s Gwyn Evans, the RN side had their first points on the board within two minutes, with chef Josh Drauniniu evading two defenders to score, before adding another try under the posts. From a penalty to RN that was kicked for touch, the resulting lineout saw flanker 2Lt Pilkington driven over for a touchdown converted by Fear. At half-time RN were 17-0 up.

The clock was on 49 minutes before Fear slotted a penalty from 30 yards out. Five minutes later the RAF were camped in the RN 22 and penalty after penalty against the RN was kicked for touch. The RAF exerted strong momentum through their heavier pack on numerous occasions but never looked like breaching the RN defence. It was on 68 minutes, when the RN was again penalised for two consecutive offsides in as many minutes, that RAF took the tap option. The ball went through quick hands to find an overlap on the left wing, the pass dropped on the line. The referee deemed that the RN defence had again encroached the offside margin and awarded the RAF a penalty try, which was converted. On 80 minutes Cpl Williams spied a gap and chipped a cheeky ball over the RN defence and with superb pace touched his kick down for five more points. Converted by Cpl Charnock, this took the final score to 14-20 to the RN.