MET BLITZ LONDON MEDIA

The Met Police continued their sparkling start to the Centenary Season with a bonus point victory over London Media. It was a convincing result with the Met claiming a bonus point within 50 minutes but the visitors showed admirable spirit with a magnificent rearguard performance in the last quarter.

The Met opened their account through an early penalty slotted between the sticks by Sam Druce. He doubled the lead after a period of increasing Met dominance, squeezing over a drop goal from some 30m out.
Media retaliated with a penalty of their own but that was to be the only time the visitors troubled the scoreboard all afternoon. Met debutant Huw Longden set the Met on their way to a bonus point with a well worked try, converted by Druce. Centre partner Chris Bamber-Blake followed up six minutes later with a y that gave Druce his most difficult shot at goal of the afternoon, and he converted with aplomb.

The second half arrived and the Met looked set to run riot. Within 5 minutes of the restart, the Met won a scrum on the right hand touch, slick three-quarter play saw a long pass find Rory Payn hugging the left touchline and the flying winger skipped round a plethora of defenders as he raced 30 metres to touch down. Druce added the minor. From the restart the Met looked to have got themselves in a bit of a pickle on their own 22. But when the ball arrived in Payn's hands he again shredded the defence to reach the halfway line. With plenty of support to his right, a couple of offloads found Jack Scott who galloped home, giving Druce the simplest of conversions.

With some 30 minutes remaining the Met had secured a bonus point and Media looked to be well-beaten. However, from the restart Met found themselves again bogged-down on their own 22. Eventually managing to get the ball away, Bamber-Blake found himself facing one defender with three men outside him and elected to kick. The ball was recovered by the Media defence who ran it straight back up the middle. Solid Met defence stopped the charge on their own 22 but from that point on, London Media camped inside the Met half. Whilst Media put together several impressive phases, the Met defence never looked like it was going to be breached, Will Ferguson and Ahmed Mohammed putting their bodies on the line at every opportunity. The Met struggled to retain possession when they won it, with knock-ons occurring all over the field. Fortunately, Media's handling was equally fallible so even when they looked to have created an opening, it seemed that the ball would always go to ground.

In the end, the Met notched up a third bonus point victory . With Bec Old Boys putting Worth OB to the sword, the Met and Bec find themselves level at the top of the table. Next week, the Met travel to fourth placed Old Georgians who hammered London Exiles 64-26.