Renegades Come Close as Police Win

Fresh from their loss to a resurgent Mariners side the Renegades were keen to get their league campaign back on track against strong Police outfit.

Matters were not helped by several first team players such as Mikey ‘The Legend’ Williams and Ebola Gibson (and a few second team players such as Phil ‘The Cup’ Hall) arranging a golf trip to Miami in the middle of the rugby season!

Once again Renegades were pressed to find players before Saturday with the SOS being sent out to old boys. The old boys and rookies alike were thrown straight into the fray.

A solid enough side was cobbled together by kick-off and there was no reason the Renegades could not compete. While Police have always had plenty of good backs there was every chance the Renegades could compete up front.

Things did not go to plan as the Police backs managed to run in 3 unanswered tries in the first half, all from good running lines. In addition, they also managed to make a conversion and a penalty too with the Renegades going 20 points down after 30 minutes of the game.

The penalty was conceded by Jimmy Bum as he attempted, from inside centre, to pick the Police scrum half’s pocket at the back of the scrum – despite his vigorous protestations both linesmen and the referee were adamant he was offside.

The Renegades kept their nerve and took their game plan back to the forwards which allowed them to make some headway. This payed dividends with Del Boy going over the line after a period of pressure. With the Renegades going in to half time 5-20 down, there was plenty still to fight for.

In the second half Renegades continued with the same tactics and moving Healy from flyhalf to scrumhalf helped Renegades get a grip of the game. It wasn’t before long that Cedric Diggory scored a try under the posts and Frank the Tank made the conversion.

Renegades maintained the edge in the second half but an organised Police defence kept them well away from the try line.

With 15 minutes to go the Renegades made some changes in the front row and the Police scrum began to crumble. The Renegades demolished a Police scrum 10 meters from the Police try line – the ball ended up coming out the back of the Renegades scrum and Dunks took advantage of the confusion crashing over for Renegades 3rd try of the match.

Unfortunately there was not enough time for the Renegades to complete a comeback and despite picking up a losing bonus point the Renegades will feel this was a chance missed as the game finished 17-20 to Police.