England run out winners against Invitational Marauders.
A day of 2 matches – with both a Women’s and Men’s game. With the MRRF Vixens playing a Women’s Police team and the MRRF Marauders playing the England Police Rugby team. I travelled over to West London the night before the match and arrived to find a good crowd building. That crowd included some very recognisable faces, including Peter Winterbottom and Tim Stimpson there in support, alongside several notable names lining up for the Marauders.
The Women’s game was up first and we were treated to some entertaining rugby, it was a great advert for the Women’s game, the police team was victorious with the final score standing at MRRF Vixens 19 Police Women XV 43
Premiership Ref Christophe Ridley was the man in the middle for the Men’s game
Neither game was a ‘friendly’ and the men’s match definitely wasn’t, with several ex-internationals turning out for the Foundation team there was a lot of determination shown by both sides. Some fantastic rugby was on show and the final result was MRRF XV 29 EPRUFC 79.
The games were played in honour of the Matt Ratana Foundation which is based upon the 5 Pillars –
Well Being and Inclusion
Respect For People And Culture
Team Sport to Be Enjoyed
Discipline And Fairness
Sportsmanship
Whānau