Cfn Matthew Fraser, 2CER, escapes the clutches of Navy during the Australian Services Rugby Championships. Photos by Bill Cunneen, Army newspaper

Hard and fast
Army takes away the Inter-service Rugby in the women's and the men's

By Pte John Wellfare
THE men of Army Rugby Union flattened the competition at the Australian Services Rugby Championships held in Sydney from May 9 to 16.

The notably well-drilled Army team had a reputation to uphold after winning last year's championships with a decisive 25-15 victory over Navy and a phenomenal 97-0 win against Air Force.

This year Army's first game was against Air Force, with an understandably intimidated RAAF team taking the field, knowing they'd be facing an uphill battle.

Army men's team coach Capt Angus Baker said the Air Force put on a better performance than last year, but still had a long way to go before they could match up to the Army players.

"It was tight in the first half, RAAF came out and were very committed, they'd done a lot of work since last year," he said.

"They were well structured, well drilled, we had to weather the storm a bit, played our game plan and as a result the second half was free-flowing rugby.

"We stuck to a pretty disciplined game plan that we've worked hard at and it's running rugby and you saw that in the second-half."

Army came out with a comfortable 65-3 win against Air Force, but the Navy was always tipped to give them a tougher fight.

The Army team was up to the challenge and put every effort into overwhelming the Navy side, earning a 46-8 victory for Army.

"Fast. That was our game plan - to run them off the paddock and I think we did that," Capt Baker said.

"It was tough, they contested in set pieces, but we dominated and got on top of them and we had pacey backs and out-flanked them.

"In the second half we ran away with it a bit, it opened up and that was how we won it and how we like to play it."

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