The Bermuda Police Rugby Football Club awarded two of their members club caps in recognition of their outstanding service to the outfit for an extended period of time.

Adam Richards and Mika Tomita were presented the caps during the club’s annual dinner awards ceremony last weekend.

Tomita also became the first women’s player to be awarded a club cap.

She first joined Police in 2009, where she won Rookie of the Year Award.

She has also been awarded the club’s Players’ Player of the Year award three times and has represented the Bermuda women’s team and the Bermuda Select Team since making her international debut in 2012. Jamie Barnwell, the Bermuda head coach, describes Tomita as “a truly professional senior player and a tough competitor whose resilience, physicality and attitude bring essential qualities to any team”.

Police further acknowledged the amount of work Tomita contributes outside of the club, helping to grow the presence of women’s rugby on the island.

The club believes Tomita’s cap was an important milestone in acknowledging the equal importance of women in rugby and hopes it will pave the way for more caps to be awarded to other women’s players.

Richards’s club cap marked a fitting end to his playing days as he recently announced he will be scaling back his playing commitments at the end of the season.

Richards, having joined Police the same year as Tomita in 2009, has been a solid foundation in the forward pack offering invaluable leadership and mentoring to those who have played alongside him.

He also served at the men’s captain for a number of years, winning all league trophies in the 2012 season.

Richards has also been a regular feature for the Bermuda team, having represented the island on multiple occasions against Cayman Islands, Mexico, Turks and Caicos, USA South and Jamaica.

He is now looking to contribute to Police off the field where he is to assume the role as the club’s chairman for next season.