Army Masters co-captain, SSgt Ben Butler (RLC) says that a culture of collectiveness and resilience honed during a challenging series of build-up matches.
The Masters team faced Police England, London 1 outfit Horsham, and RMA Sandhurst in the weeks leading up to the Inter-Services Championship.
All three were far from the idea of being a traditional opposition for a team made up of older players, and while the games against the Police and Horsham saw the Masters end up on the wrong side of a result for the first time since 2015 they were nevertheless ideal preparation for the Inter-Services Championship opener against the RAF in Gloucester.
Image © Alligin Photography, Lee Crabb
The RAF came out of the blocks quickly, scoring 13 unanswered points in the opening quarter. But the Army did not panic, hitting back with 26 straight points of their own before withstanding a late fightback to record a 26-20 win.
And SSgt Butler has no hesitation in putting the credit to the lessons learned earlier in the winter.
“Playing younger teams certainly helped us,” he says. “We learned massively from the games against Horsham, who are fourth in London 1, and Police England, which was a big shock to the system. Sandhurst was also a young, fit team, and I think that that was the turning point for us as a team, because we’d learned from the previous games, and without any of these games we’d probably have come unstuck against the RAF.
“They scored 13 points in the first 20 minutes, so we needed to sort ourselves out. We were down to 13 or 14 men for long periods of the game as well so had to work that bit harder.
“The Masters is one of the easiest teams to captain. You know the lads will put their bodies on the line and love wearing the red shirt, especially in Inter-Services. There will be mistakes in a game and one of the things that we do is to never expect that teams won’t score against us. So we get together under the posts, take a deep breath, and everyone knows what’s gone wrong and what we need to do to fix it.”
Image © Alligin Photography, Lee Crabb
Should he be selected, the 2022 Army Navy match in Aldershot next Friday will be SSgt Butler’s 10th Masters cap, having made his debut in the 2015/16 season. That longevity is all the better considering the two years lost due to the pandemic and he says that wearing the red shirt later in life makes the honour resonate that little bit more.
“Yes I think it does, and maybe more so, because you know you’re coming to the end of your playing career,” he says. “I know that while I’m hoping to play again next season I also know that that would be it.
“Playing for the Masters for the first time was a special moment. I’d been dropped from the Senior team just before the RAF game that year, which had been a big shock, so getting the cap was exceptional.
“At that time I was a reservist working in a state school, so I was very busy, but they were massively on side, giving me the time to play for the Masters. I was putting a lot of my own time in, so when it came to getting my cap for the first time it was pretty special. I was surrounded by a lot of friends who I’d played with throughout my career, and two of the coaches were my best friends as well.
“It also gave the kids that I taught the opportunity to be mascots at the game. They all got shirts from Andy Kerr, our team manager at the time, and tickets for the main game as well. It was a special day for them as well as for me.”
Images © Alligin Photography, Lee Crabb
SSgt Butler says that the team has come on in leaps and bounds over those six years, adding: “The culture that the Masters had at the time was much more relaxed.
“One of the reasons I got involved was because there was going to be a bit more professional, and has become ‘Masters’ rather than ‘vets’. Over time more people want to play us, and not just ‘vets’ teams.
“When we played Police England their oldest player was something like 27 or 28, while I’m the oldest Masters player at 48! So we’re playing teams now who are a lot younger than us but we’re still competitive.
“It’s good to see the Navy and the RAF are following suit and becoming more competitive, which we saw in our last fixture with the RAF.
Image © Alligin Photography, Lee Crabb
“It has come on no end in our age group. We’ve had a lot of Senior players come in who have been capped and they love the culture which we’ve created, the Masters brotherhood. It’s very special.”
While the pandemic postponed SSgt Butler adding to his tally of caps, he does admit that for all the frustrations of not being able to get onto the field the 18-month hiatus has helped prolong playing careers.
“As with a lot of the lads, when we’re carrying injuries it can take more time to recover, and the break helped a lot of them to fully recover when they weren’t playing, and to do their own training to come back stronger. And some of the lads who were going to retire were able to carry on.
“But while it helped it was frustrating for all three teams as well, because while we wanted to play we weren’t able to.”
SSgt Butler has left the classroom behind to be a full-time member of staff at 216 Squadron RLC in Tynemouth – “if Carlsberg did jobs!” he jokes – and he says that rugby played an important role in helping him transition from the regular Army to the Reserves.
“I’d left the Army after 22 years in 7 Para RHA, and I struggled initially. That’s one of the reasons why the coaches got me on board because they thought it would help, and it did.
“The Masters have helped me transition, because it is hard when you get out, and you don’t realise at the time what you have got until you don’t. It gives me that little bit of a buzz and why I’ve got my first shirt up on the wall, and shows young people what they can do in the Reserves, if you play sport as a high level there’s no reason why you can’t represent the Army as a reservist as a regular soldier does.
“So playing for the Masters is massively important.”
The Army Masters host the Royal Navy Ancient Mariners at Aldershot on Friday, April 29th. KO is 1400hrs and all are welcome.
Tickets for the 2022 Army Navy match (April 30th, Twickenham) are also still available.
CLICK HERE for information about Army Navy
Words © New Dogs, Old Tricks.
Header and Featured Image © Army v RAF Match – Alligin Photography
