Renegades come from behind to beat Police

The weather was uncertain on a wintery Bermudian morning on Sunday, but not as uncertain as the prospects of a heavily depleted Renegades squad (due to the high school reunion season) facing a much improved Police team. The uncertainty was further compounded by Bum immediately panicking and wanting to change everything in the warm up, but after an emergency shot of Ritalin and a hug from Conor cool heads resumed.
After Captain Cumbers evaluated the squad Crazy Horse Llares and Dai Wheatley were pressed into the pack at second row and open-side respectively and Del-Boy had already been primed with 5 minutes of quality training from a fat Welshman on Thursday to prepare him for a stint at loose-head.
Our early anxiety seemed unfounded as after some quick phases and solid running by both backs and forwards released the ADHD riddled antipodean into the corner for an early 5 points. Skippy came forward and unluckily and surprisingly hit the woodwork with the convo from a touch angle.
However that was to be the highlight of the first half as a trademark Renegade implosion of old appeared on the horizon. Penalty after penalty marched the Police into Renegades territory and after two successful penalty kicks put the boys in blue into the lead a tactically naïve restart short and into the middle of the pitch, allowed the Rozzers to make easy inroads into black and white territory, and after some petulance at the refereeing of the ruck, quick police hands against a whingeing Renegades defence, allowed their winger to cross in the corner for a converted try and an improbably 13-5 lead.
Again an ill-advised kick-off into the middle allowed easy inroads into Renegades territory and further transgressions in the ruck area gave the Po Po good field position near the Renegades 22. A clean lineout won and a few simple passes outside on first phase, with the Renegades backs avoiding the tackle as vigorously as Leah from the birds team (outside of Classic Week), created a walk through for the police scrum-half and an easy 7 points on the board. Unfortunately Bum’s Tourette’s flared up and the ref rightly sent him to the bin for 10 minutes to give him an opportunity to get his ticks and twitches under control. So with 25 minutes gone Renegades were 20-5 in the hole and down to 14.
However the sight of Jamie going off seemed to give the lads a lift, and under the posts for the conversion Charles was so annoyed he gave the lads a verbal mauling. I quote “Come on chaps we have given away a surfeit of penalties and we really must cut it out. In fact I will be jolly angry at the next person who infringes on the laws of rugger and I will write them a strongly worded letter on Monday expressing my deep dissatisfaction.”
This verbal savagery seemed to resonate with the lads and everyone immediately upped their game after the restart, which thankfully now Skippy had managed to put into the corner so the renegades pack could apply some pressure. A good hit by San-Jeff led to a scrum and a much need foothold in opposition territory and after some good interlinking and phase play released David the Ravid in for a score. Skippy steps up and knocks it over from a tricky angle. 20-12 and game on. The Renegades pack started to get into the ascendancy as now with possession they were clearly on top in set-play. A missed penalty right before half time, however from a good spot was not ideal.
After some soul-searching at half-time the lads came out and finally managed to keep hold of both their discipline and the ball and started to dominate territory and possession. Some strong running from Del-Boy soon after half time saw him get over for a converted try and we were right back in it at 20-19. Bum making amends for his dismissal made a nice break from a pick and go up the middle and the good guys were ahead 26-19. Despite some committed attacking from the Police, Conor and Geoff proved adept at holding the tackler up and winning some maul turnovers and Llares was counter-rucking like the Caballo Loco he is. Another score soon beckoned when Bum had to make a simple pass to the Welsh trundler on the wing only to fire it two feet over his head and into row J in the stand 30 foot away. One can only speculate as to why he insists on throwing every pass like Dan Marino going for a Hail Mary…one can only surmise he has a small penis.
Cedric soon added to the scoreline with a nice finish by bumping off his mate and opposite winger to get the bragging rights on FaceChat or SnapBook or whatever these whipper-snappers use these days. Skippy again, well into his stride, knocked over the convo casually and we were up to 33-20. The final word went to the Talismanic Irish bruiser Jabba the Quigley to bounce through the midfield like an oil tanker smashing into fishing boats on the Fukishima shore to round us out at 40-20.
A good comeback from the team and a lot of character was shown by all, even if that character was Mickey bloody Mouse in the first half. Sterner tests will come this season particularly next week against the highly committed and rapidly improving Mariners (who lost a thriller 36-35 in the last minute later in the day) and a similar lack of discipline and focus will be punished. However job done, and a special shout to Caballo Loco and Dai ‘Mint Cornetto’ Wheatley for sticking their head in the pack, to Del-Boy for doing the job at loose-head, and to Charles for providing focus for the team and providing quality in the midfield all day long.

Earlier in the day the Ladies resumed their league campaign and bid to go the season unbeaten. Despite displaying severe symptoms of post classic come down and missing a few familiar faces, they managed to secure a 3-3 draw against the Police Ladies. Team Veteran, Melissa Franklin went over for two tries, while Leah used her recently acquired french flair to add the third. Highlight of the day however goes to token Saffa, Lynda, who unleashed her Black Friday wrath on Referee Terry Medeiros in an on the line off the line debacle. Terry had the last laugh however, chucking Wahl in the sin bin. Thankfully, Pharmacist Lynda, self prescribed a half time Xanax and returned to the game in higher spirits.

Islandstats report and video highlights
http://www.islandstats.com/sport.asp?assoc=1&sport=6