Salford’s AJ Bell Stadium will play host to a senior inter-service rugby league match between the British Army and RAF rugby league sides today.
The match will precede England’s World Cup warm-up fixture with Fiji and fans can purchase tickets online for this double header. The Army v RAF fixture kicks off at 5pm, and the England v Fiji game will commence straight after at 7.30pm.
Sgt. Alan Boyle, a representative from the Army’s rugby league side, said: “The way the competition works is, it’s tri-services, so the Army, Navy and the Air Force all play each other in a round-robin tournament. That’s been going since 1997.
“We beat them [the RAF] last time out. But we’ve played the Navy since and they beat us, and they beat the RAF the week before so they are the champions for 2022.”
The Army and RAF senior sides can not win the tournament as the Navy were victorious in both their games versus the two sides. Although they are only playing for pride, Sgt. Alan Boyle said that it will still be a fiercely competitive and highly enjoyable watch.
He said: “This is the way you can show your support for the armed forces. You will see the most committed and robust rugby outside the Superleague.
“Regimental pride, or service pride, goes above everything else. It means everything to them. It’s the highlight of the year for the players.”
The standard of rugby is incredibly high in these fixtures, with the teams including a number of professional and international players.
“We’ve got guys at pro clubs, and they all come together to represent the Army and the Air Force. We’ve got some really talented players from all over the world.
“We’ve got Australians, Fijians, South Africans, Zimbabweans. We’ve got an international Northern Ireland player as well, international Ireland players. One of the lads has been picked up to play for Fiji, and he’ll be playing in the England vs Fiji game.” said Sgt. Alan Boyle.
There will also be fixtures between the Army and RAF’s women’s and academy teams held at the Hallsworth Road ground in Eccles, home of the Salford City Roosters.
The academy match is the first game of the day, kicking off at midday, and the women’s match will follow at 13:30. Both these games are free to attend.
Although the senior round-robin tournament has already been decided, it is still all to play for in the women’s and academy games and either team could still emerge victorious.
There will be concessions for serving military and veterans for the senior games. Ticket details can be viewed here.
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