RNRU Royal Navy Rugby Union

HMS DARING was invited to participate in a sports day held at HMAS CERBERUS in Melbourne, Australia; the Royal Australian Navy’s version of HMS Raleigh.

We were greeted by the Base Warrant Officer on arrival and taken straight for something to eat. Afterwards the Football and Netball teams parted, whilst HMS DARING RFC got ready for a challenging fixture.

By this stage, HMS DARING were very much used to the heat, and actually Melbourne was a lot cooler compared to the 45 degrees we were subjected to in Kwajelein Atoll, where the ship had been for the months prior.

HMS DARING has a complement of 230 personnel of which approximately 35 play Rugby. HMAS CERBERUS has a compliment of around 2500 personnel of which about 2000 play rugby; however, on the pitch this did not reflect as DARING had a lot more presence and eventually found themselves 10 – 0 up after 2 tries from ET Patterson. As with all training establishments, there was a new team in place and all “the wingers” were currently turned to.

Oh how this changed near the end of the first half!!! All of the Trojans had finished their day’s work and turned up, all kitted out ready to take on the RN.

After making 4 subs in this friendly game, the Australians really started to up the tempo and it was not long before they got onto the score sheet. After an amazing tri, which was a 60m dazzling run from their 15, and a just as good conversion, CERBERUS were back in the game, just as the half time whistle went.

DARING’s RFC Captain, PO Mark Highland gave as much advice and encouragement at half time, but the players, as well as the spectators knew that the second half was going to be a different story.

Within 10 minutes of the second half, CERBERUS were 28 – 10 up. They were brilliant; however they started to take pity on DARING, and eased off, bringing their “not so amazing” players on, who also happened to be brilliant.

CERBERUS got another 2 tries, both converted and it looked like they were going to shut DARING out completely out, but this all changed when ET Paterson completed his hat-trick getting his third try in the last play of the game. The conversion was missed and the game finished 42-15. The post match reception was in true Aussie style..... beer and BBQ.