Renegades Into Nichol Shield Final

After a good cup run, Renegades had made it into the semi-final against Mariners. After some apocalyptic weather in the morning there were fears the game would be cancelled, but some good work from the fixture secretary meant that the puddles had pretty much cleared by kick off (and we all got to watch the Ireland game). The puddles that were left were no match for Kung-Fu Pettler's patented tape on the boots technique.

Renegades started strongly with the Original Top Try Scorer crashing over for a try early on. Willy Woo suffered a hamstring strain while being dumped on his ass by his opposite number. But a sadistic vice captain left Woo to limp around the pitch for another 10 minutes, before reluctantly bringing on Phil The Korean Pool Hall Cup. Renegades continued to put pressure on the Mariners with some good ball carrying from pretend-marathon-runner Shiny Mikey. The pressure led to a penalty on the 22, which Barry Archiballs knocked over to make it 10-0.

There were serious concerns when Salty Mcsaltface also went down with hamstring injury. Again he was forced to play on for 10 minutes, before being allowed to sub. Youngster Jacobe Bryant took over in the second row.

The Renegades let their dominance slip in the second half and the Mariners made their way back into the game. Renegades struggled at the set piece, with some wonky darts at the line out from Mcglynn (which was likely caused by the alignment of the planets) and some solid scrummaging from the Mariners pack. But Renegades managed to keep the Mariners off the scoreboard for much of the game. Mariners fans were highly vocal on the sideline and were enraged by some the Renegades tactics. Interviewed after the game, Eddie Oooooooostheizen said "If you paid for a ticket you should ask for your money back. You haven't seen a game of rugby. If that's rugby then I'm going to retire. That's not rugby."

Renegades returned to the opposition half and a huge dummy from Healy sent a couple of Mariners half way to St Georges and allowed him to run in under the posts untouched. Healy celebrated his try by attempting an impression of Quigley at the next ruck, but it wasn't very realistic. Not only because he doesn't have the hair or the physique, but mainly because he put his top back on as soon as the ref asked him to.

As always, the Mariners carried on fighting right up to the end. After a good break took them into the 22, Dion Dublin strolled through under the posts after Jahan made a tackle that would be more at home in the Women's touch league. Roof Tiler made a valiant effort at a charge down, but actually ended up pushing the conversion over the posts to make it 17-7.

Earlier in the day, the ladies hopes of winning the treble came to an abrupt end after losing to Mariners 2-0 in wet and windy conditions. Under new rules introduced by the referee during the game, each half was shortened by 5 minutes so that he could get home and dry off as soon as possible. But the ruling probably saved the Renegades even more embarrassment as the Mariners team who hadn't won a game all season ran in 2 tries, to set up a final against Teachers.