FINDING game time when club matches are suspended during the Autumn Internationals can prove a challenge, but some local players are celebrating representative honours, reports GARETH ROBERTS.

Crawshays Welsh RFC is a 103-year-old invitational team noted for their commitment to fast, entertaining rugby.

With no home ground, they almost exclusively tour, so their recent fixture against Oxford University at Sardis Road, Pontypridd, was a rare opportunity for the players to showcase their talents on home soil.

With over a century of history, the ‘touring’ team – who have had such luminaries as JPR Williams, Phil Bennett and Jonathan Davies in their ranks – have rarely achieved a ‘University Double’, but were optimistic, following their excellent last-gasp victory at Cambridge’s Grange Road in November, which was a first win against either Blues side since 2020.

Winning try scorer on that occasion, Monmouth RFC’s Ollie Scriven, was in the squad again, where he was joined for a second time by club skipper Logan Woskett and vice-captain Harry Whelan.

They were joined by club colleagues Shaun Hobbs and Lewis Bates this time, alongside Abergavenny RFC’s Eion Shackleton, with Bates crossing for a try in a hard-fought 29-19 victory, thereby landing the double over the Blues teams for a first time in eight years.

On the same evening as the victory in Cambridge, Monmouth back row man Ollie Park was in combative form for the RAF Under 23s in their stunning 42-14 win against their Navy counterparts in round one of the Interservices Cup.

This meant that any victory against the Army last Friday at Cardiff Arms Park would hand the airmen a first title in 19 years.

And with their Monmouth man in excellent, marauding form and despite falling behind to an early Army try, the RAF ran away in the second half to seal a 26-17 victory, and with it, the title.