Reigning champions British Army Jackals beat Royal Navy 27-8 in American football
The Army Jackals have beaten Royal Navy American football 27-8 in the second game of the 2025 Inter Services at Tilsley Park in Abingdon.
It was a sticky first half for the reigning champions, facing a spirited senior service who had already suffered a huge 4-64 defeat to the Royal Air Force in March.
Hector Winstone-Hooper disrupted the Jackals' momentum with a classy interception in the first quarter, but his foot was called out of bounds, so there was no early score for the men in white, meaning it was scoreless at the first break.
Another Navy pick in the second quarter, this time from Alex Ellis, showed just how much the Royal Navy had their tails up.
But what do defending champions do in a tricky situation? They score a touchdown, this time through Jacob Shotton sliding in to touch.
Andrew Newiss slickly added the extra two as the second quarter ended 8-0 in favour of the Army Jackals.
The men in black were back to winning ways and produced a much more convincing performance in the second half, putting all the pressure back on their opponents and slowly building towards another score.
The brilliant handling skills of the Army quarterback, Martin Brown, got the ball downfield to Newiss for the touchdown.
No extra points were added, but the Army Jackals were well ahead 14-0 after the third quarter.
The Navy had some spectacular moments, demonstrated by the excellent takedown of the Army quarterback by George Day.
Again, the Army responded to that pressure with another score as John Dawai danced over for six points to make it 20-0.
The Royal Navy struggled to execute a clean snap throughout the entire game but their quarterback, Sam Scott, dealt with the situation well and was finally able to deliver a scorching pass for Connor Young to take in the end zone.
Ben Weatherill went over to add the two-point conversion, and the score was 20-8.
To seal the deal and have the final say, the Jackals turned to the ever-reliable Newiss, who bagged himself 14 points in the game.
It was a game that the Army owned, with Dale Kennedy kicking the point after touchdown to bring the final score to 27-8.
Major Andrew Newiss said about the Army Jackals' performance: "We just knew that if we kept going, that we would just start to soften them, and that really showed in the second half with our ability to run the ball."
The Army Jackals now face the Royal Air Force Mustangs for Inter Services American football glory on Thursday, 30 October.
Major Andrew Newiss added: "They'll probably never let us live down that they won the fist ever Inter Services championships, but we're the current champions, so we're feeling confident."
This is the third year of inter-services American football.
The RAF won the inaugural tournament and the Army took the silverware last year, so this is the final everyone expected.
Join Our Newsletter
