The Roger Sherratt Trophy is awarded to the member of the Royal Navy Women’s Rugby Union Squad who is deemed to be the most valuable player of the season. This player will have shown strong leadership qualities both on and off the field, have provided a positive influence on the Squad and have displayed the attitude and bearing that epitomises the values of the Royal Navy Women’s Rugby Union Team. It is therefore rare that a player wins it in the same year that she wins her first cap, making Pippa Hutchinson’s achievements this season all the more remarkable.
In winning the award Pippa becomes the first front row forward recipient of the most prestigious ...
The link between rugby and the Services is well established and based on shared values which hold respect, discipline, courage, teamwork and integrity in high regard. Every year the Rugby Football Union has its own ceremony to mark those England Internationals who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars. Whilst at Northampton Saints a wreath is placed at the small statue of Edgar Mobbs who raised his own ‘sportsman’ company during the Great War, as he was deemed too old to join the Army. He was to be killed in the Third Battle of Ypres. In Bristol the city paid its own tribute to their rugby players killed in the First World War with the op...
In any sport the greatest accolade remains the acknowledgement by your teammates and for the Royal Navy Team that means being awarded the coveted Cossack Sword. The Cossack Sword was presented to the Royal Navy Rugby Union by former player and selector, Captain Leigh Merrick Royal Navy and was first awarded in 2000. The sword is for “Ground Gained and Held” and awarded at the end of each season to the player, from the Royal Navy Senior XV, whose performance over the course of the season best meets the battling qualities invoked by the heritage of the “Cossack Warrior”. It is voted on by the players themselves and this year it was Royal Navy&rsquo...
Coming off the bench at last season’s Army Navy match many were aware of the rich potential Jarrard Hayler had as both a ball carrying and scavenging flanker. His performances later in the year earned him his UKAF cap, again off the bench, to go with his Royal Navy Cap before two days later he finally was awarded his U23 XV colours when he took the field in the opening Inter Services U23 match against the RAF at Halton. His first Inter Services title was confirmed the following week with a win against the Army at Portsmouth followed 174 days later by a Senior Inter Services title. It is therefore easy to forget what a newcomer he still is to Navy Rugby and also to...
