Teachers Punish Renegades in First Half

The attractional semi-final against a supplemented Police team the week before had taken its toll on the Renegades squad due to injuries and suspension.

With that said the Renegades still fancied their chances in the final of the Nicol Shield against this season’s main rival Teachers RFC on a warm Saturday afternoon.

Renegades got off to the worst of starts as a dropped ball allowed one of Teachers rapid outside backs to run three quarters the length of the pitch to score under the posts.

Renegades didn’t panic and played through the phases in the Teachers 22. They were unlucky to only come away with 3 points as Teachers repeatedly infringed around the breakdown.

These were the only points Renegades were to score in the first half. Renegades had the better of the possession but could not turn it into points. The Teachers outside backs managed to score 3 more tries under the posts, all run in from distance and as a result of Renegades errors. The halftime score was 3-28.

At half time coach Barry ringed the changes and the Renegades made a valiant comeback attempt. Jimmy Bum found in an unusual position on the wing was making strong runs but couldn’t quite cross the line; The magic of Phil The Cup never quite materialised; Brown Noise made it over in the corner after several good phases of play; Big Mike gave a good account of himself on his first attempt at propping; Del Boy managed to grab a try on his last Renegades game in the corner after a Teachers lineout mistake; PK tried his best to get sent off at scrum-half replicating the antics of his southern cousin Healy form last week, but amazingly it turns out Healy is still a bigger twit than PK.

Ultimately the Renegades left themselves far too much to do in 40 minutes and Teachers ran out the deserved victors at 13-28.