Mariners Hold Fast in Annual Broadside Against Devonport

Another game that initially fell afoul of the 2026 daily Devon deluge was again saved by the 4G pitch at Keyham where the RN Mariners took to the field against their annual opponents Devonport Services. Always a great test for the Mariners, Services selected a club XV with a good mix of younger and more experienced players which looked to run the Navy Veterans around the park.

The scoring started early for Devonport after a great angled run from their prop who caught the ball at full tilt, broke a tackle and went over close to the posts to make the conversion a formality.

However, the crowd that had been brave enough to be pitch side during the waves of rain that descended during the first half had to wait a long while before the next score. The Mariners gained a lot of territory through the pinpoint kicking of fly half Richard Cadywould and a lot of possession through a solid scrum and lineout but a few handling errors and some great defending from Devonport prevented them from troubling the scorers.

The dam eventually broke in the 27^th min when another powerful scrum from the Mariners pack inside the Devonport 22 allowed them to wheel slightly giving the seasoned campaigner at No 8 Veresa Valemi the opportunity to show his power and pace to score. Cadywould added the conversion to bring the scores level.

That pressure was maintained by the RN, so much so that the referee gave a yellow card to Devonport for repeated infringements. Using the numeral advantage the Mariners finished the half strongly with a team tried finished off in the right corner by another long-term Mariner Paul Saberton.

HT RN Mariners 12 – 7 Devonport Services Club XV

The second half could reasonably be described as ‘one for the purist’ as despite the rain eventually easing off, both sides struggled to break each other down enough to score for most of the second period. There was lots of effort, skill and endeavour from both sides on show but a mixture of handling errors, players being held up over the line and infringements meant scoring opportunities were kept to a bare minimum.

Even the introduction of the RN Director of Rugby, Lt Cdr Tom Blackburn, couldn’t get his team over the line for much of the half, but he did arguably make the scrum even more powerful.

With 5 minutes left of the match the hearty supporters were treated to a couple of quickfire tries from the Mariners to finish the game. The first arrived after a smart kick through from Cadywould (who kicked from hand superbly all night) which took a horrible bounce and skipped past the final defender allowing the Navy chasing player a simple dot down to score. Just like a London bus, you wait for ages for one to come along and two come at once! The same happened here and it was well worth the wait, another prolonged period of Mariners pressure was finished by a perfect cross field kick pass from Richard Cadywould which was taken in the air by Micky Hutton to score his second in quick succession. The conversion was added by Cadywould to top off an ultimately successful but albeit slightly frustrating night for the RN.

FT RN Mariners 24 – 7 Devonport Services Club XV

Coach Chris Thompson was thankful to Devonport for what is always a tough fixture, “It was pleasing to see a lot of the things we trained come to fruition on the pitch and as always, we were given a very hard game by Devonport. The set piece worked well as did some of our phase play. We would have liked to finish off more of the chances we set up but a few handling errors, especially in the first half didn’t allow it.”

Next for the Mariners is the annual fixture against another long-term opponent, the Torbay Sharks Veterans, who they will face at Teignmouth RFC on Wednesday 25^th February.

Mariners | First Half: A Burnside-Shonk, A John, P Fowler; C Otway, I Scovell; C Carr, E Gaught, V Valemei; M Hutton, R Cadywould, L Evans, M Southern, A McCrohan (C), P Saberton, M Horton.

Mariners | Second Half: J Popperwell, P Price, T Blackburn; J Lamsin, I Scovell; C Carr, H Hayes, S Hillman; M Horton, R Cadywould, L Evans, M Southern, A McCrohan (C), M Hutton, P Saberton.

Words by Paul Clark

Images by Jarrad Hulm