Test flavour to services game

Bianca Dawson (England), Bethan Dainton (Wales) and Gemma Rowlands (Wales) will all line out with the Army while Sian Williams (Wales), Amy Cokayne (England) and Lucy Nye (England U20s) will play for the RAF.

Cokayne and Nye have recently joined the RAF Reserves as part of 256 Sqn at RAF Cosford.

Cokayne comes from a military background with her father starting in the British Army and joining the New Zealand Air Force, where his daughter took the game up aged 5 with the boys and at 13 moved into girls rugby.  She moved back to England in 2014, and won her first cap in Six Nations in 2015 against Italy. Playing for Lichfield she studies sports science at Loughborough University.

She said:  “My dad is in the RAF; I really enjoy the lifestyle and the opportunities it can give you, meeting new people going new places and of course the sport. I know quite a lot of the girls (RAF) from Lichfield rugby and speaking to them about their different jobs made me choose the Police. I've always had a real fascination with criminology and police so it was quite an easy option. Main reason for joining the reserves now because I want to get a taste for it to see if it really is what I want to do after university, but it is the plan to join full time in the future.”

Lucy Nye, also playing at Lichfield and studying sports science at Loughborough University, started playing rugby at 12 years old. At 16 she moved away from her home in Exeter to go to Hartpury College to be part of the Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence in Women's Rugby. Starting at scrum-half for the last two England U20s games against France, she is a rising star.

She added:  “I've always been interested in being part of the police whether it was civilian or military. I think joining the reserves is a good insight to what my future career could entail. I also like the structure and discipline that it takes to become an RAF reservist.  I've always been interested in the roles of a police officer and been fascinated from a young age. I also have a lot of family members involved in the police force.”

Words from RAF Womens’ Rugby Union Head Coach WO Niall Thomson:

“We are extremely fortunate to be able to call on the considerable playing talents of both RAF Reservists Amy Cokayne and Lucy Nye. They are both committed and dedicated sportswomen and have played at a very high standard with Amy already a full England international and Lucy representing England U20. Amy is a powerful ball carrier and a forceful presence at the scrimmage and breakdown whilst Lucy is a typical dynamic scrum half who passes and kicks extremely well and also tightly controls her forward pack. Their selection highlights that elite sport can be played concurrent with a RAF career and we hope to recruit other players going forward.”

This Wednesday’s game is at 12.30pm at RAF Halton, followed by the men’s game at 15.00.