Army dominate the Combined Services Team

Comment by Lt Col Eilean Cunningham, Chairman ARUW and Chairman CS Women's Rugby

I am keen to highlight the Army's dominance at CS level - we had 14 Army players (and 5 RN and 3 RAF players) representing the CS last week in the match against the Nomads – and I would expect this dominance to continue for the foreseeable future. Needless to say, I was very proud of all of them (shown below) and I thought that they all acquitted themselves very well:

SSgt Martina Ashton APTC
LCpl Titilia Bani RLC
Sgt Kirsten Taylor AGC(SPS)*
Lt Natasha Grant RA*
LBdr Michele Slade-Jones RA
Cpl Lisa Joseph AAC
Spr Jane Leonard RE*
Maj Jules Parke Robinson AGC(Pro)
LCpl Sarah Roper RE*
LCpl Nancy Tuva AGC(SPS)
Capt Kat Woods QARANC*
Maj Sam Shepherd RA
2Lt Chrissie O’Flynn RAMC*
Capt Maggie Hodge QARANC*

* New CS Caps – the remaining Army players were capped last year in our inaugural fixture.

The Nomads, the women’s equivalent to the Barbarians are formidable and much respected opposition. Their squad comprised 12 current and former internationals from England, Ireland, Canada, Scotland, Australia and Fiji and was skippered by former England international Susie Appleby with 63 caps to her name – a very experienced side. We are hoping to play the Dutch National women’s team in Amsterdam at the end of the Inter-Services competition in May 07.

Combined Services (22) v Nomads (7) - 15 Nov 06 - Match Report