Royal Navy women 'looking strong' ahead of RAF clash at the Inter Services

The Royal Navy women's rugby league team say that they're looking strong ahead of a fierce encounter with the Royal Air Force in their Inter Services opener in Portsmouth on Friday.

Whoever walks away victorious in this opening match will hope to go on and challenge a traditionally dominant Army team for the Inter Services title.

The fixture will be shown live on the BFBS Forces News YouTube channel and on BFBS TV.

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Team captain Able Rate Sian McLaughlin says that the team is "looking strong" ahead of their Inter Services opener.

She said: "The team is looking strong, we've recruited well, and everyone so far has bought in really well to this week so, yes, I'm excited."

With the make-up of the team being mostly dual-coded players, AB McLaughlin touched upon the challenges of playing dual-code in the services.

She said: "It always brings challenges, obviously the [rugby] union season always takes up a huge part of the year and then there's a bit of a break.

"Some girls go on to play 7s and then they come into league, it just comes with early comms really, like speaking to your higher-ups and hopefully that they buy in and give you the time off as well."

The Navy lost to the RAF in last year's Inter Services clash with a 26-14 loss, and the team hopes that they can show improvements this year and take the challenge to the light blues.

Engineering Technician Elona Bythell says that she's "excited" to see what their team can do this year.

She said: "It will be good, it will be my second RAF game with the girls playing in rugby league.

"We have got a really good set-up and a really good group of girls, and it's exciting to see what we can put forward."

Sub-lieutenant Sam Hill is making her Inter Services rugby league debut with the Navy team.

"I'm really excited to play a full match of league at the Inter Services," she said.

She added: "I think there's a lot of similarities between union and league, but there's some exciting differences as well like how physical it is and the tackles, so there's a few things I'm looking forward to trying in league."

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.