Navy on course to sink the RAF and claim clean sweep

NAVY U23 head coach John Court believes the chance of an Inter Service Championship for his young side rests ‘firmly in our own hands’ as they prepare to face the RAF on Wednesday.

A clean sweep awaits Navy if they can claim victory at RAF Halton, having downed rivals Army 28-17 earlier this month. And for Court, that would cap a year which started with almost 80 triallists turning out with hopes of representing the Navy.

“Beating the Army is always massive for the Navy, the rivalry is right up there given the history of the Twickenham game,” Court told The Rugby Paper.

“Some of their coaches were some of the players I came up against when I was playing, so it was nice to get one over them.

“But it gives us massive confidence going into the RAF game.

“They played the Army last Tuesday and although they didn’t win they didn’t give up. They did the same against us last year.”

Balancing the roles of the players’ day jobs in the Armed Forces with their desire to play rugby, needs the support of senior ranks.

And Court insists the progress of players moving through to the full Navy side remains fluent as commanding officers free up time for the youngsters to pull on the navy blue jerseys.

“We try to start the year by using four trial games to settle on a squad and move forwards from there and develop the squad into what we want,” said Court, a former tighthead for the Navy.

“The good thing with the U23s is some of the boys might be 18 or 19, so we get four or five years to work with them.”