Royal Navy men seek third consecutive title at the Inter Services
The Royal Navy men’s rugby league team are hunting for an Inter Services three-peat as they prepare to face the Royal Air Force in Portsmouth on Friday.
The Navy hope to see off an RAF challenge as they did last year when the Navy beat the RAF 22-16.
The fixture will be shown live on the BFBS Forces News YouTube Channel and on BFBS TV.
Coming as the two-time defending champions, the Navy will be going into Portsmouth knowing they have a target on their backs.
The Royal Navy Rugby League's head coach, Chief Perry Officer Darren Bramford, credits the team's cohesion and their basics-focused training regime for their recent successes.
He said: "It is that cohesion that we've got off the field as well, the lads know everyone's families, they know their kids, that helps a lot when you are on the field.
"We do the basics really well, we train just basics and again, in the Inter Services, when it comes to backs against the wall, when the lads are blowing, they are hanging out in their own line, again it’s the basics and it is the cohesion that gets you through your game.
"They have been really strong in that over the last two or three years."
With the possibility of a third consecutive Inter Services title on the line, CPO Bamford says the team will "take their next job as it comes".
He added: "It would be amazing, obviously I don't think a service team has done it for a while.
"To be honest, we've not really spoken about it, we take our next job as it comes, and our next job is the RAF on Friday."
The Navy are not going into this year's tournament complacent, knowing the threat the light blues pose to their title hopes.
With players who were a part of last year's winning squad returning from deployment, the Navy hope that this will play to their advantage.
Dual-code Navy player Petty Officer Ben Chambers said: “We came together on Saturday and straight away, we gelled together really well.
“We’ve got most of the players that we had last year, and we are proven to be a successful group, so to have everyone available again for this week is really quite important and it’s great to see.
You can watch the Royal Navy v RAF men's and women's matches live on the BFBS Forces News YouTube channel on Friday, with the women's match kicking off before the men's, at 16:00 UK time.
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