Army in seventh heaven

The Army secured the Babcock Trophy by defeating the Royal Navy for a record seventh successive year in front of the highest crowd for the fixture, 50,541, at Twickenham Stadium today.

Two tries in each half made for a comfortable victory for the Reds', whose Army Rugby Union celebrated its centenary last year though they have been battling the Navy at rugby since 1878.

In the build-up to this year's contest both sides had defeated the Royal Air Force so the Army carried off the 2008 Inter Services Championship with plenty to spare over a doughty Navy side who were undermined by a problematical line-out.

The Army had second row Rob Sugden on parade two and a half weeks after the Coldstream Guardsman returned from active duty in Afghanistan.

Sugden's disruptive work in the line-out, allied to the Army's tactic of fielding Fijian star Apolosi Satala on the right wing to counter the Navy flyer Josh Drauniniu - a regular for Exeter in National League One - worked a treat.

Satala was named in the centres on the teamsheet but he kept his opposing wing quiet and ran in the fourth of the Army's tries, in the 76th minute, for good measure.

The Navy had received a pre-match good luck' message to their lock Justin Doney of 814 Naval Air Squadron from the crew of HMS Illustrious, the aircraft carrier which is task group leader of Orion 2008 in the Indian Ocean.

Last year's Navy head coach Mark Deller was on board HMS Illustrious yesterday, and as Commander Air was planning to order a brief halt in flying to enable the men to watch satellite coverage of the match.

The Navy celebrated a record-equalling 16th season of services caps for their prop Si Burns when he came on as a late replacement but a win to break the Army's victorious sequence was beyond them Dave Pascoe's 23rd minute penalty goal out the Navy ahead after a nip-and-tuck first quarter but a crucial passage of play around the half-hour mark turned the match the Army's way.

An Army line-out five metres out was disrupted by the Navy but the Reds' No 8 Joe Kava did well to tidy up and his flanker Maku Koroiyadi drove to within a metre of scoring. A series of scrums ensued, the Navy had flanker Andrew Dennis sent to the sin bin for disengaging and the Army worked 33-year-old prop Chris Budgen - soon to depart Northampton for Exeter - over for the opening try.

Straight from the restart after the missed conversion the dangerous Satala left three would be tacklers trailing, lobbed a ball inside and found lock Darrell Ball in support to score.

Pascoe, the Navy's captain and scrum half, chipped over a penalty after 39 minutes and the Army led 10-6 at half-time.

Two minutes into the second half a line-out drive set up the Army's third try for prop Melvin Lewis, converted by full back Mal Roberts for 17-6.

Drauniniu might have made more of a cross-kick which came his way when his nearest marker was Lewis.

And the Navy's Achilles heel was most evident when, at an attacking line-out deep in the Army 22, they overthrew to the grateful Army captain at the tail, Mark Lee.

"We used Rob Sugden at the front of the line-out to begin with and then brought on Ben Hughes for his record 26th cap," said Lee.

"It's my third win over the Navy but the first as captain so it's the most special and it gets harder every year.

"We gave their backs too much leeway to begin with and changed our plans on the pitch, keeping it tighter and playing to a structure and it worked."

Replacement Navy hooker Gareth Evans received a yellow card for a punch after 55 minutes and Kyle Mason came back on to reinforce the scrum - the next one was wheeled for a turnover which maintained hopes of a Navy comeback.

But though the Army wasted one enormous overlap when centre Peceli Nacamavuto and scrum half Gareth Slade-Jones ignored the outside, they made no mistake in a similar position with time ticking away.

Replacement half backs Ian Martin and Mark Honeybunn combined sweetly to feed Satala for a deserved score.

The Navy had the last word, at least, with a try for 19-year-old full back Wayne Dugan set up a long pass from Wayne John to Tom O'Keeffe.

"You hear a wave of sound coming at you, especially when the opposition score," said Lee, referring to the record Twickenham attendance. "When you have the ball yourself you don't tend to notice it.

"I had good luck messages from a couple of mates in Iraq two days ago and I know my old battalion, 1 Scots, are out there at the moment and would have enjoyed Apo's Satala's score.

"This is the culmination of a lot of hard work for six or seven months and the team are delighted."

Army: SSgt M Roberts (Royal Logistic Corps); Pte A Satala (1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland), Spr P Nacamavuto (Royal Engineers), LCpl D Cootes (Royal Engineers), LCpl M Magnus (Royal Logistic Corps); Gdsm R Sweeney (Welsh Guards), Sgt G Slade-Jones (Army Physical Training Corps); LCpl M Lewis (Welsh Guards), LCpl G Kemble (2nd Battalion The Royal Welsh), LCpl C Budgen (The Royal Welsh), Capt R Sugden (Coldstream Guards), Cpl D Ball (Royal Engineers), LCpl M Koroiyadi (Royal Logistic Corps) Capt M Lee (Army Legal Services, capt), Pte J Kava (Royal Logistic Corps).

Replacements: LCpl M Dwyer (Welsh Guards) for , ATpr W Ross-Allen (Army Air Corps) for , Cpl B Hughes (Royal Engineers), LCpl L Jope (Royal Engineers), 2Lt I Martin (3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment), Capt M Honeybunn (Royal Artillery), Spr B Seru (Royal Engineers).Scorers: tries: Budgen, Ball, Lewis, Satala; con: Roberts.Royal Navy: AB Wayne Dugan (HMS Lancaster); AET A Vance (MASU), Cpl G Barden (RM Poole), AB J Caruana (HMS Monmouth), AB J Drauniniu (CTCRM); Mne R Lloyd (42 Cdo RM), LAET D Pascoe (RFANSU, capt); NA(AH) Kyle Mason (RNAS Yeovilton), LA(AH) A Laity (RNAS Culdrose), AB M Roberts (HMS Bulwark), LAET J Doney (814 Naval Air Squadron), LAET M Cormack (845 Naval Air Squadron), Capt W Pilkington RM (Directorate Naval Recruiting), LPT A Dennis (HMS Nelson), Capt M Parker RM (CTCRM).Replacements: LCpl G Evans (CTCRM), CPOET (WE) S Burns (HMS Brocklesby), Capt T O'Keeffe RM (RMR Bristol), Mne T Lark (SFSU St Alban), POET W John (HMS Collingwood), Mne C McCrae (Cdo Logs RM), Mne S Llewellyn (Cdo Logs RM), AB S Buinimasi (HMS Cumberland).Scorers: try: Dugan; pens: Pascoe 2.Referee: D Rose (RFU).