The Royal Navy have the first Inter Service Championship title of the season, their Under-23s overcoming two yellow cards to run out winners at the Army Rugby Stadium.
Storm Conall had long gone by the time the Army and Senior Service kicked off in Aldershot. Unlike swathes of countryside elsewhere in the south of England, the Army Rugby Stadium pitch was clear of water, and the teams served up plenty of entertainment.
LCpl Kevin Van-Der-Leest opened the scoring for the red shirts with a fifth-minute penalty, a feat opposite number, AB George Edson only failed to match by the width of the goalpost five minutes later.
There was no mistake from Edson five minutes later as the Navy stayed in Army territory to tie things up.
The Navy also had first sight of the try line just before the end of the first quarter, winger Mne Freddy Elliot just being beaten to his own chip ahead.
Instead the visitors had to settle for a second Edson penalty, followed by strong defence of a driving Army maul close to the Senior Service’s line.
But the Army turned on the power at the scrum to force a fumble to set up a great position. They got over the line, too, only for referee, Flt Lt Mike Gray to award a penalty to the Navy for a double movement.
Having held out the Navy scored the first try just after the half-hour mark. Winger AB Ben Callard broke up the touchline, Edson finishing things off in the corner.
This put the Navy two scores up with half-time approaching, and the Army needed something to go their way.
They were helped by a yellow card shown to Elliot, and a penalty which was kicked to the corner.
But the forwards could not capitalise, and instead the last points of the half went to Edson, who made the score 14-3 as the teams headed into the sheds.
The Army needed momentum, and quickly. There were some powerful surges from the forwards, a Van-Der-Leest chip which just evaded the chasing Cft Ben Hurford-John.
There was reward for this effort from a Van-Der-Leestpenalty which brought the red shirts back to a 6-14 deficit.
A second yellow shown to the Navy helped, too, AB Jack Davis sent to the stands for dangerous play.
But Van-Der-Leest missed two opportunities to chip away at the lead, and with 20 minutes to go there were still those eight points separating the teams.
Having been under the cosh for virtually all of the third quarter, the Navy made the contest theirs to lose with the most sucker punch of scores.
Edson spotted space on the far side to carve a good angle, and with the defending winger up in the line the Navy 10 kicked ahead for Elliot to score in the left corner.
The conversion was missed, but the Navy nevertheless had a 19-6 lead and the Army had a mountain to climb.
Edson had a kick at goal, which despite being missed still took a crucial minute off the clock, and while the Army did maintain their effort it was the Navy who had the silverware.
Words © Inter Service Championship
All images – Alligin Photography © Andrew Fosker
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