RAF VULTURES AMBUSH ARMY MASTERS

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The Army Masters, (formerly the Pensioners) who earlier won the gold medal at the World Masters Games in Sydney Australia were well and truly ambushed by a big hearted and confident RAF Vultures Team buoyed their victory against the Royal Navy Ancient Mariners 10 days ago.

The conditions were perfect for a match of this magnitude and with the inability of the Army senior team to secure travel back to the UK due to the Icelandic Volcano ash, the Veterans game was catapulted to the evening fixture which proved to be a fitting finale to a tremendous day of rugby union.

The Vultures kicked off in an exciting and open attacking spectacle of running rugby with both wingers Banford (42 Sqn RAF Kinloss)and Halliday ( RAF Shawbury) pinning the Army into their 22. This appeared to upset the Army game plan. Whilst the Vultures applied tremendous pressure it was not until late into the half that they opened their account with a try from Captain Sgt Jason Mateer (RAF Benson) converted by FS Gary Banford (42 Sqn RAF Kinloss). There was no further score and the Vultures left the field with a 7-0 half time lead. As expected it was a game of cut and thrust with the RAF three-quarters engaging the Army back row. The direct running of Sgt Paul Dix (RAF Leuchars) attracted a lot of attention and this allowed the slinky running of Mateer and Halliday to start to open up gaps in the Army defence. The Army were stung into second half action and a series of silly penalties saw second row Cpl Lee Oakey spend 10 minutes in the sin bin for a team offence. The Army full back Mark Reed took the opportunity to convert one penalty to reduce the Vultures lead. The Vultures pack quickly settled down and the second row, Cpl Paul Clark (RAF Leeming) and Oakey, totally dominated the line out. Producing good ball for the three quarter line. The game continued with continued ferocity with the Army throwing everything at the airmen. Surprisingly the Army back row chose to attack close in but the exceptional defence of Sgt’s Ben Hausermann, Vernon Powell and “Flash” Young in the RAF back row and Sgt Dave Cooper at Scrum-Half repelled every attack, and turned ball over on numerous occasions. The game was highly entertaining and fiercely contested.

Just as the Army appeared to be gaining an upper hand the Vultures broke out of their half and following another back row offence by the Masters, Banford converted another penalty to increase the Vultures lead to 10-3. The Masters then made several changes putting on some fresh legs in an attempt to break down the Vultures defence, but the airmen were resolutely robust and it was only an Army penalty in the 70^th minute to again reduce the lead that set up a grandstand finish but in reality the shell shocked Masters side never looked like breaching the Vultures defence. At the final whistle the large crowd showed their appreciation of a game that showed all the good points of Veterans rugby union – maturity – experience - skill and determination, but moreover a respect for the opposition, with a standing ovation for both teams. Sgt Jason Mateer stepped up to receive the Sir Maurice Dean Trophy for Veterans Inter-Service Rugby from the competition sponsors Babcock International Group to the vocal support of the RAF Women’s squad. The Vultures Coach Sgt Simon Hill (RAF Honington) is quoted as saying how proud he was to be associated with such a committed group of talented rugby players and to be part of a team that has won this coveted trophy for the second time in three years who have displayed such a high standard of rugby for the second time within 10 days. The Veterans teams of the other two services must also be congratulated for making this years competition the truly outstanding event of the RAF Rugby calendar. No doubt they will be back to make amends!