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Another exciting weekend of rugby action saw both the men's and women's leagues really take shape, as Renegades virtually assured themselves of retaining their title in the ladies, and Teachers find themselves sitting firmly in pole position for the men's title.

Women

Renegades 11, Mariners 3

Renegades faced off against closest challengers Mariners in a game that the Mariners needed to win to pull themselves closer and possibly set up a winner takes all clash on the final day of the season.

The 'Gades ladies were well pumped up for it though, and they raced into a 4-0 lead early on with a brace from the impressive Ruth Leston, Laura Haynes and Melissa Field. A shell-shocked Mariners, possibly feeling the effects of the previous night, responded with Amanda Swan getting through. However, the ladies in black resumed their onslaught with Sue Rebello, Karen Peckett, Leston and Field rounding off a highly polished first half performance to lead 8-1.

Swan sprinted away for her second try on the restart, but a two tries from captain Amy Harvey and another Leston effort, completing her hattrick, left the result in no doubt. Vanessa Toet grabbed a late consolation but Renegades were full value for their 11-3 win and remain unbeaten for the season.

Teachers 9, Police 1

The second ladies match pitted Police against Teachers Dragons. It was one of those days for Police as Teachers were rampant, especially in the first half. They playing some lovely rugby and created huge gaps that they ruthlessly exploited. Marie-Pierre Beaudoin led the way with three tries, Melissa Da Ponte and Christine Rickards both scored twice and Jennifer Crawford and Mona Wierzbicki rounded off their tally with a try apiece. Rachel Black grabbed the lone response for the luckless Police, who fell to a final score of 9-1.

Men

Mariners 22, Renegades 8

The first men's match was Mariners against a Renegades side needing a win to keep up the pressure on table toppers Teachers. In the frantic opening exchanges, it was Mariners who struck the first blow when Mark Pomeroy slotted a beautiful penalty after good pressure from the Green's forwards. Both sets of forwards battered each other up front, but Mariners domination of the lineouts began to bear fruit.

A wonderful move off one of these ended with Alun Thomas bursting through the centre to score a superb try. Pomeroy converted to leave the Mariners ahead 10-0 at the break.

The second half was another exciting 40 minutes of rugby as both sides threw everything into it.

Renegades began to exert massive amounts of pressure, but the Mariners were equally adept at absorbing it. Eventually, indiscipline led to Ian Henderson narrowing the gap as he nailed a penalty.

Mariners got possession from a penalty and from the resulting lineout, Kris Furbert burst through the blind side to go over the line, with Pomeroy again converting. The 'Gades came back strongly however, and scored a magnificent try of their own. Henderson took the ball after brilliant forward work and chipped a beauty of a cross-field kick straight into the arms of the waiting Colin Targett, who gleefully dove over.

The conversion was missed and Mariners showed great character to keep their heads. As the game drew to a close, they saved the best score until last.

Scott Brown went on a marauding run and after they recycled the ball, it was passed through six sets of hands to Steve Husbands who put the ball down in the corner. With the conversion missed, the final score was a deserved 22-8 win for Mariners.

Teachers 22, Police 0

The last game of the day had Teachers looking to take advantage of the Renegades slip against a Police side struggling with injuries.

In an uncompromising first half, Police defended fantastically and made a huge amount of tackles, with Jamie Billings, Dave Bird and Durferd Davies standing out. Teachers' pressure eventually reaped some rewards when a fine offload from Dave Porter set Alvin Harvey in. The normally reliable Shauntino Simons missed the conversion but Teachers still went in 5-0 to the good at half time.

The injury jinx that has plagued Police all season again came back to haunt them as they lost a number of key players. They ended the match with 13 players and must get every credit for the valiant battle they provided, but their incredible effort finally took its toll in the last 15 minutes of the game.

The tireless Mike Barkhuizen, surely a front-runner for player of the year, benefited from a quick penalty to go over for their second and though Simons missed the conversion, he made up for it shortly after by scoring a great try.

Again, the conversion was missed but Teachers were looking for a crucial bonus point for scoring four tries. It finally arrived when livewire Barkhuizen went over after a lovely break from Chris Naylor. Greg Fraser converted to leave the final score 22-0 to Teachers.[[In-content Ad]]

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