Army capitalise on Matavesi’s dismissal to sink Navy hopes
The annual celebration of armed services rugby was marred by the sending-off of the Royal Navy’s former Fiji flanker Sam Matavesi in an outbreak of unarmed combat midway through the first half.
Referee Tim Wigglesworth went straight for his red card after television replays showed Matavesi head-butting Army tighthead Ken Dowding in an offthe-ball incident. The contact may have been minimal but the offence was obvious and Matavesi’s dismissal effectively decided the match. The Army scored three tries in 12 minutes soon after Matavesi departed but managed only a penalty in the second half, when they lost momentum at the same time as a power cut knocked out the electricity supply in half the stadium.
“I didn’t see the incident but I didn’t anticipate the red card. When the referee went to his pocket I thought it was going to be a yellow but when we saw the red the boys dropped their heads,” said Ben Priddey, the Navy’s captain.
“At half-time I told the boys to get their heads up and if we did I thought we could fight back and win it. I couldn’t ask more of them from the second half with 14 men.”
The Navy had the satisfaction of the scoring the only second-half try, when replacement No 8 Ratu Vakalutukali crossed over after two near misses. But the Army’s superb support play before half-time produced tries for Chris Leathem, Junior Bulumakau and Jamie Miller and helped them overcome the absence of the injured England wing Semesa Rokoduguni, who had scored 10 tries in the past six meetings with the Navy. Rokoduguni is one of the reasons why tickets for a match between two amateur teams sell out in hours but Andy Sanger, the Army head coach who will start a new job as Harlequins player development manager on June 1, has also played his part by raising the standard of services rugby.
“Andy has taken Army rugby to new levels. He has been a great servant over 20 years, not just for this side but the Royal Engineers and the Army rugby league team,” said the Army’s captain, James Dixon. “He’s also helped to raise the standards of services rugby and it can only go higher. This was a great send off for him.”
Sanger will leave the forces with a record of seven wins and a draw in this fixture but it was not quite the perfect send-off. The RAF had already played party-poopers by winning the Inter Services Championship two weeks ago, not that it affected the enjoyment of the crowd.