The standout tie in the opening round of this year’s Challenge Cup is perhaps an unusual one to casual rugby league observers, with the Royal Air Force taking on the Navy in an all-armed forces affair at RAF Cranwell. It is fitting, though, that such a fixture headlines the first round of 2024 given that this year is the 30th anniversary of the lifting of the ban on forces personnel being allowed to even play the sport, let alone compete in its biggest competition.
The game on Saturday will be broadcast on the BBC but, had it not been for the efforts of men such as Sqn Ldr Damian Clayton, it would not have been possible. Clayton joined the RAF in 1987 having played rugby league in Brighouse as a teenager, but arrived to find a blanket ban on rugby league across all armed forces.
