Royal Navy International Honours Increase
Servicemen Retain 7s Places
Navy Rugby's Greg Barden and the Army's Isoa DamuDamu have both retained their places in the12 man England squad announced for the next round of the HSBC World Seven Series in Wellington.
The first 2 legs of 2011 will see Greg miss the Navy's match away to Oxford University (Iffley Rd 2 Feb) but he will be back for the Navy's first home game against Cambridge University at Burnaby Rd on 16 Feb. Commenting Navy Director of Rugby, Lt Cdr Ashton Jones said: "Losing a player from your first choice team will always cause some disruption. However what Navy Rugby gains from having a player involved with International Rugby far out-weighs what we lose. Against Oxford we will be able to give one of the up and coming players an opportunity to challenge for a place in the later games of the season. Greg has been excellent both last season and already this season in managing his time between England and the Navy, even when unable to train with us his input to the squad is always first class."
Both codes of Navy Rugby were sharing in the delight of Logs CS Manoa Satala who has just been selected to represent the Fiji Warriors. Manoa, who won four caps for the Navy in 05 and 07, he was recently a key player in Portsmouth Comd Inverdale Cup campaign. He is equally well know in Navy Rugby League circles where his powerful running has been frequently used to good effect by ‘The Band of Brothers'. He recently returned home to Fiji for trials with the Warriors and his good form was rewarded with selection to the Warrior team.
The Fiji Warriors are 1 of 2 Fiji Representative sides which are the level below the full national side and play in the IRB's Pacific Rim competition. This season the Warriors warm up matches are against the Rebels and the Waratahs, from the Australian Super 15 franchises.
Manoa' return to good form started with his performances for the RNRL in the summer and through his conditioning work with PO Turner (HMNB Portsmouth RRU) he was able to continue that form in to the Union season with some standout performances for his Comd. All at Navy Rugby wish Manoa well with the Warriors.
Lewis Makes Promising Start
AB Charlotte 'Charlie' Lewis (Fleet WMO Ports) made a promising start to her International career albeit in a losing Scotland team against Spain in Madrid. Starting the game on the blindside the Navy flanker played the full eighty minutes only changing to the openside flank during the match.
Though the game was lost 28-13, Charlie felt she gained valuable experience and now knows how much work it is going to take to sustain an international rugby career. The next objective remains inclusion in Scotland's 6 Nations squad and then joining up with the Navy Women's squad as they look to challenge the dominance of the Army within the women's game.