Renegades into Nichol Shield Final

After two fiercely fought league encounters against Police since the Christmas break, the Renegades were keen to maintain their ascendancy over their league rivals in the semi-final of the Nichol shield. Both teams had players absent due to injuries after an attritional season, but this didn’t stop the teams competing until the 80th minute.

The Renegades started well exerting early pressure, but were unable to convert this into points as the Police defense held strong. Against the run of play the Police had an attacking lineout on the Renegades 5 metre line. The Police opted to run a 3-man lineout for the majority of the game in order to employ their big runners and also nullify the Renegades formidable fringe defense. The Renegade forwards were not quick enough to reorganize their defense in the face of the 3-man line out which lead to the Police back row combining well to crash up the ball and score in the corner, despite the heroic tackling of The Blair Witch Project, to make it 0-5.

The Police continued to pressure the Renegades try line but their defense held strong with good work from McGlynn and Dunkerley, although the referee considered that this crossed the line of legality and awarded a penalty in front of the posts which the Police fly half duly converted to make it 0-8.

The Renegades kept their cool and started to exert some forward pressure. Pettler dummied his way through the centres then neatly offloaded to Gibson who was tackled just short of the try line. Scrum half Healy had quick ball which was spread wide allowing center Baum to neatly side step the Police back row and stroll in for the try. Barry Archibald kicked the conversion to make it 7-8 with the score staying this way until half time.

After the restart the Renegades continued to apply pressure with stand-in-captain Gibson making some strong runs and even utilized the skills he picked up in the Montrose F.C. football academy by sending a 40 yard grubber kick into touch on the Police 5 meter line.

This pressure culminated in a penalty close to the police try line which allowed the opportunistic Healy to take a quick tap penalty and dive over the line for Renegades 2nd try. Barry once again did the honors making it 14-8.

It was now Police’s turn to exert some pressure and after some good work by their forwards they spun the ball wide and managed to force an overlap allowing their winger to touch down in the corner making the score 14-13.

Police continued to put the ball through the hands to utilize their quick backs to score another, somewhat controversial, try in the corner – Renegade replacement full back Phil “The Cup” “Korean Pool” Hall appeared to have bundled the Police winger into touch but the referee saw thing differently and awarded the try making it 14-18. “The Cup” was heard to mutter later in the pub that he looks forward to seeing if footage of the try would make the arbitrary 5 minutes of highlights on island stats to allow closer inspection.

It was once again Renegades turn to gain the ascendency with veteran, stalwart, journeyman Welsh hooker Mikey Williams taking a scrum against the head which the Renegade backs capitalized on. Barry Archibald threw a cultured miss pass to heavy-set center Jean Quigley, who burst through the Polices defensive line, pinning his ears back for a 30 meter dash into the corner for what ultimately proved to be the match winning try, making the score 19-18. The ever modest Quigley paid tribute to the front row saying “whilst it obviously takes a great deal of skill to finish off a try like that, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to score if it weren’t for the lads in the front row so I wouldn’t.”

With 10 minutes left on the clock the Police never looked like throwing in the towel and continued running with intent whilst retaining possession well. They won a penalty on the Renegades 10 meter line, which they surprisingly opted to kick for goal, given the inroads they were making with ball in hand. The penalty attempt went just short and wide which Barry then kicked off the park to secure a 19-18 victory and a spot in the final next Sunday against the Mariners following their earlier victory over Teachers.

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