One of the best 1st half performances ever seen at Burnaby Road set the Brothers on course for another victory over the Army to get their Inter Services campaign off to the best possible start. In a match that can only be described as a game of two halves the RNRL scored 6 unanswered try’s in the first 40 only to see the Army to fight back in the second half to jangle the nerves of the home supporters.

Whilst some of the crowd were still getting to their seats from the bar the RN scored the first of their 7 try’s. Returning the Army’s clearing kick the RN pack took the ball forward through midfield into the Army half, a deft high kick by Matty Gaskell contested by both sides fell for the RN into the arms of Brodie Butler. The 2nd row flicked the ball out to centre Danny Dainty who stepped the Army cover to touch down with barely 2 minutes on the clock, despite the missed conversion this was a wonderful start for the Brothers 4:00. 12 more minutes passed before the next score and although the Army had plenty of possession, aided by penalty’s, play was almost exclusively in their own half. On 14 minutes a similar move by the Navy, on the back of hard yards by the forwards, gave Matty Gaskell some space and with plenty of support it was Brodie Butler again who took the pass in turn finding full back Ben Chambers in the line and it was try No 2, 8:00 15 gone! RNRL continued to dominate with the Army kicking game almost ineffective with Ben Chambers taking everything they could throw at him. From such a kick the RN moved deep into Army territory and were gifted more possession by a needless penalty conceded by the Army at the Play the Ball. Matt Gaskell once again at the heart of the move flung a measured pass out to Roko Kurusasa who cut inside for the line but was held up by the defenders. Gaskell took the ball at first receiver and slipped between two defenders for the score, Rhys Joel added the extras 14:00! As the game moved towards half time the RN continued to dominate with possession and territory going there way, another attack looked to have staled when James Teixeira appeared to have lost the ball but the Ref adjudged it was a strip by the Army so another penalty conceded. Rather than taking the two points RNRL pushed for another score, this time a push for the line by Mattison was halted, skipper Ben Taylor continued the move releasing the ball to scrum half Rhys Joel who slipped under the Army defenders for another score 18:00. An average kick off by the Army was returned with interest by the RN, on the back of a repeat set probably the coolest man on the pitch James Tilley at dummy half dived for the line to score another RN try, 22:00 with 5 minutes to go to the break. A clearing kick from the RN was fielded well by the Army however the advancing RN line were on the ball carrier almost immediately, a poor play the ball giving possession to the RN, once again the Army were caught offside boosting the RN efforts. Teixeira again took the ball on almost to the line, Tilley’s pass found Gaskell who’s slight of hand fooled the defence allowing the pass to go to Chambers who went over for his second of the night, 26:00 it was now and that rounded off a fantastic 1st half performance totally dominating the Army in all areas.

So to the second half, and as alluded to earlier on it was a different story with the Army outscoring the RN threatening the RN dominance. Indeed it was the Soldiers who scored first in the half, for the first time it seemed the Army played with some confidence and good hands found Dan Coombs who burst the line to touch down under the posts, Mickey Hoyle converting to close the gap to 26:6. Further evidence of the change in dominance came after 47 minutes when Ref Peter Parker sent the influential James Tilley to the sin bin for dissent. Another error by the Army led to a potential flash point when Corivuka threw the ball at the RN defenders, surprisingly it was only a penalty which was gratefully accepted by the RN clearing their lines. With 5 minutes remaining on the sin bin the Army pressed to take advantage of the advantage however it took something spectacular to beat the resolute RN defence. The Army attack seemed to have stalled until a well weighted kick across the field found Pita Moku who beat the RN defender out wide crucially touching down behind the posts. This gave Mickey Hoyle another straight forward conversion which he nailed to close the gap even more 26:12. With Tilley now back on the field the RN regained their composure putting pressure back on the Army. A lost ball gave the RN the scrum in on the Army 30 metre line, the first break by Dave Brown was held up but from the play the ball Tilley pushed the ball out to Brodie Butler who himself was held up but was able to release the ball to Gaskell who sent out the killer pass to Ben Chambers who crossed for his 3rd of the night 30:12. Still fired up though the Army responded, a lost ball from the kick off gave them possession in the RN half and using the tackles well play moved out to their left wing, centre Corivuka found his winger Moku who crossed for his 2nd on the night, Hoyle once again converting to close the gap even more 30:18. With the clock running down the Army continued to pressure the RN and a great 40/20 looked to have given them the opportunity for more points. A well executed set found Mickey Hoyle on the left who burst for the line however two RN tacklers brought him down and much to the delight of the RN he lost the ball in the action! The final few minutes remained scoreless but full of incident with the Army camped in the RN half but unable to score despite handling errors by the RN giving them the advantage. Finally Peter Parker blew the full time whistle to end a fantastic game of RL for the neutral

Man of the match went to RN Full back Ben Chambers not only for his hat trick of try’s but for his error free play at the back when dealing with the Army kicks from defence. So for the second year in succession skipper Ben Taylor lifted the Jack Harrison Trophy for his Band Of Brothers

The Brothers:- 1.Ben Chambers 2. Kini Dakuliga 3. Gavin Duffy 4. Danny Dainty 5. Tu Roko Kurusasa 6. Matty Gaskell 7. Rhys Joel 8. Dave Brown (10) 9. James Tilley 10. James Teixeira (8) 11. Brodie Butler (vc) 12. Charlie Mattison 13. Ben Taylor (C) 14. Tyler Leighton 15. Louis Mckenna 16. Jack Broxton 17. Jack Basher

Army:- Jake Boardman, Pita Moku, Niumaia Corivuka, Andrew Smyth, Nakoronivalu, Spittal, Zuger, Christian Wooler, Aaron McBride, Jordan Miller, Joey Walker, Micky Hoyle (vc), Ryan Watkins (C),
Wame Ratubalavu, Navitalai Vosanibole, Dan Coombs, Sean Beevor 18 Kieran Fleming

Royal Navy Rugby League

Burnaby Road PO1 2EJ

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