Army Senior Men 2020 Inter Service Squad Announcement

Major Burnie Burnard MBE, Head Coach to the Army Senior Men’s team, along with the squad’s coaching and management staff are pleased to announce the selection of the following players for the 2020 Inter Service Championship.

Competition for selection was extremely fierce, many congratulations to all those selected.

The details for Army Senior Men’s 2020 Inter Service matches are as follows;

Saturday 4th April 2020 – Royal Air Force Senior Men v Army Senior Men – Kingsholm, Gloucester – KO 1500

Saturday 2nd May 2020 – Army Senior Men v Royal Navy Senior Men – Twickenham – KO 1400

Head Coach, Burnie Burnard commented;

The Army Men’s Senior XV’s mantra all season has been ‘we must be better than we were before’ and the players are working incredibly hard to achieve that.  At this point it is worth remembering all of the players that have contributed to the Red Shirt this season and just missed out on selection, I am sure their time will come. Jamie Miller remains as Captain and seven uncapped players have been selected, all of whom have performed extremely well in the Corps Competition and in the Army fixtures this season.

Jamie Miller’s leadership will be extremely important in this years Inter Service competition and he will be supported by the leadership group who together will guide the team on and off the field.  With everything that is going on this year we must not forget that this is the competitions centenary year and the Men’s Senior XV are proud to be part of its history.

The forward pack are an experienced group who have worked incredibly hard to develop and get better as players.  The experienced players will be pushed all the way by the uncapped players; Curran McMillan, Stephen Jenkinson and Isikeli Matai who are pushing hard for Inter Service selection.  The game is developing all the time and the back row always gets a lot of focus.  This year competition for places is extremely exciting.  It is great to see Sonoma Veikune and Matt Dawson back fighting for the number seven shirt and to see how much better Ifereimi Boladau and Sentiki Nayola will be with another season of professional rugby under their belts.

The backs are a true mix of power and pace.  Army fans will be well aware of the talents of Semesa Rokoduguni and Ratu Naulago who are performing well in the Premiership and Super League respectively but the talents of John Davetanivalu, Jake Richards and Uraia Naulusala will be pushing them all the way.  The quality in the centres is there for all to see, with the experience of Ravai Fatiaki and the hunger of new comer Mitch Vulikijapani who I am sure people will know from his performance in 7s for the Army and Saracens alike.  A lot of credit has to go to Giles Bromley-Martin, Connor O’Reilly and Billy Allington who have recently arrived back from deployments overseas and made themselves immediately available for selection, epitomising the character of these players and what Army Rugby means to them.  The half backs are always important to any team and the Army have some real talent.  Lloyd Wheeldon and Tom Chennell have established themselves in the squad and it is great to have James Dixon and Owain Davies back playing well and ready to go for this years Inter Services.

In this important year the squad have come together really well, learnt from history and are ready to work hard, put it all out on the field and leave the Army Shirt in a better place.

Playing Squad

Management, Coaching and Medical Staff