Royal Navy keeps championship hopes alive after dominant win against Army

The Royal Navy men's rugby league team have defeated the Army in their final fixture of the Inter Services Rugby League Championships with a convincing 8-40 win in Hull.

The reigning Inter Services champions, the navy blues managed seven tries against the Army's two to keep their Inter Services hopes alive.

The Navy sought to put right what went wrong against the Royal Air Force in Portsmouth and wasted no time with James Tilley getting onto the scoreboard first. 

• Royal Navy's Will Rigelsford signs for Championship team Cornish Pirates
• RAF rugby coaching changes: Who has been appointed to lead the team in 2025?
• Inter Services rugby league: Watch senior men's and women's matches live

More tries for the Navy soon followed with Jack Ray, Dave Brown and Luke Baird helped build a healthy 22 point lead for the Navy, with Ben Connor adding the extras with well-negotiated conversions.

The Army, now on the back foot, needed to respond in kind, and that response came from Ryan Watkin with a try that finally put the Army on the scoreboard in the first half.

Come half time, the Navy were ahead of the Army 4-22.

The second half commenced and the Army, with work to do, began to put the challenge to the Navy with more ball procession and tighter defence. 

But the Navy responded with Gavin Duffy cutting through the Army defence to score another try for the Navy.

With the clock running down to full time, the Army got a consolation try in to being their score total to 8-28.

The Navy however proved just too good, as Brodie Lee Butler and later Danny Dainty scored their own tries to distance the Navy further from the Army at 8-40.

To add further insult to injury, the Navy were awarded a penalty which was successfully converted by Jack Basher, bumping their score up to 8-42 at full time. 

Leeds Rhinos and England legend Jamie-Jones Buchanan did the honours of awarding the Navy the Jackson Harrison Trophy following their win against the Army.

The Army now head to Wakefield where they will face the RAF in the final clash of the Inter Services.