British Army Women’s Head Coach, Sarah Mitchelson, paid tribute to the development of Player of the Match, Manuqalo Komaitai, and the leadership of team captain, Jade Mullen, after the team overwhelmed the Royal Air Force to retain the Inter Service Championship title at Kingsholm Stadium.
A first-half hat trick for number eight Komaitai and a flurry of tries in the third quarter took the Army clear of their perennial challenges in light blue to continue their dominance of Forces rugby.
“Manuqalo has been like that all season,” Mitchelson said. “She deserves that performance. Two seasons ago she wasn’t getting into the squad, but then she got onto the bench and today she was clearly the best player on the pitch.
“She deserves credit for the work she has done. We’ve worked with her but she’s also joined a club and then comes back and does everything we ask her to do.”
Komaitai, who added a fourth try in the second half, showed both power and pace to capitalise on the perfect spring conditions as the Army steadily broke the RAF down before cutting loose later in the game.
Leading from the front was Mullen, who anchored the team in attack and defence at fly half and scored the seventh and final try which sealed another impressive personal performance.
Mitchelson said that Mullen is even more important off the field in ensuring the squad is ready to take on all challengers.
“There is so much work that goes on in the background, and Jade is crucial – along with Sarah Batley – in making sure that everyone arrives here in the right frame of mind to win the Inter Service Championship,” Mitchelson added.
The Army Women are renowned for their physicality. But the margin of victory was as much down to the intelligent running lines and eye for an opportunity.
A great Amy Carr angle onto a Mullen popped pass put the red shirts created the position for Lauren Brooks to score the Army’s second, and Courtney Pursglove once again lit up the Kingsholm pitch for a trademark long-range effort in the second half.
Nevertheless the RAF contributed massively to what was an enthralling contest in the first half.
Daisy Aspinall crossed in the right corner soon after Komaitai’s first, and Lucy Nye capitalised on Sophie Benavent’s yellow card to bring her team into the contest just before the break.
But the three tries before the hour mark killed off any thought of a comeback, and the RAF’s wait to regain the Inter Service Championship title will extend into a seventh year.
Despite that, Mitchelson paid tribute to the RAF for pushing the Army to higher efforts with each passing season.
“Without that we don’t get better each year,” she added. “We’ve left here as the winners, but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t been pushed every single time. Since we’ve been at Kingsholm there hasn’t been a single easy game.”
For Mitchelson’s opposite number, Sian Williams, there was understandable disappointment at the day’s result, but nevertheless progress over the course of her first year in charge.
“We can be disappointed in the scoreline, but that didn’t reflect the game,” she said. “We had opportunities in the first half where we didn’t come away with points; if we had come away with points then it’s a completely different game.
“We have to be more clinical and finish off the opportunities we create.
“The main thing for us is that we have to be tested more across the season. We need to be playing hard games against hard opposition and be challenged, especially in defence, so that we can analyse and look at what we’re doing.
“We’ve bedded down our culture. We’ve bedded down a lot of things as well, we just need to add that performance aspect.”
Words © Inter Service Championship
All images © Army Rugby Union – Alligin Photography
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