Royal Air Force narrowly scrapes win over Royal Navy in Inter Services opener
The Royal Air Force have won the opening women's match at the Inter Services rugby league championships in Portsmouth.
The RAF, who also beat the Navy in the same match last year, are now positioned well to challenge the British Army at their home fixture in Wakefield on 27 September.
The Navy got off to a strong start in the opening minutes, with Adrienne Baker dotting over the line to be the first try scorer of the game.
More tries for the Navy soon followed as Elona Bythell stormed through the RAF defence and Baker also scoring her second try of the game.
The RAF needed to pick up momentum to bring themselves back into the game, and skipper Grace Burnett did just that and got the RAF off the mark with a well-executed try and Kim Grundy adding the extras with a successful conversion.
In the dying minutes of the first half, the RAF fight back continued as Hannah McCabe cleared the tryline to eat further into the Navy's lead.
Come half time, the Navy lead 14-10 as the RAF looked to rectify a slow start to the game.
The light blues returned in the second half as they left off, as McCabe caught Grundy's offload and darted over the line, catching the Navy by surprise.
The visitors soon followed up with a try from Grundy, as they continued to build their lead over the home side.
The game slowed with several injury stoppages, and with the Navy in need of a boost of momentum, Laika Swain broke the deadlock and got one more try in for the Navy.
With minutes to go, the Navy looked to have scored another try to level the scoreboard with the RAF, but was disallowed by the coach.
At full time, the RAF narrowly scraped an 18-22 win as heartbreak runs through the Navy squad who will now face the Army in Hull next week.
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