The Met recorded a second victory of the nascent league season in a scrappy contest with Old Cranleighans. Unavailability and a couple of late withdrawals meant the Met started with a much-changed XV from the one that had convincingly beaten Old Blues. There was certainly a sense of "getting to know you" as the Met's evident forward superiority was undone by loose passes, runners being isolated, and tacklers failing to bring opponents down, or even hold on to them. Old Cranleighans also boasted a stand-out player, at least until he visibly tired around the hour mark, as open side Theo Tyler-Lowe seemed to be everywhere in both attack and defence. The Met maintained the early territorial advantage but the visitors took the lead in the 11th minute with their first incursion, breaking a couple of half-hearted tackles to score wide out on the left. The Police were quick to reassert themselves in the away team's half but handling was still an issue and Cranleighans managed a number of turnovers to keep their line intact. Eventually the sustained pressure required a more cynical intervention on their own line and Cranleighans conceded a penalty try.
The Met's joy was short-lived. Within two minutes, the old boys had again broken through weak Police tacklers but this time in midfield, gifting Cranleighans a second try, converted from just to the left of the posts. It did not bode well: two horrendous mistakes, two tries conceded. If the visitors could gain parity in the set piece the game would have been theirs for the taking. Fortunately, the Met front row of Bailey, Bolton and Dyson were not for bending and Cranleighans' front three were more often vertical rather than horizontal. In fact the Met's power was such that they didn't face a set-piece in their own 22 all match.
Before the first-half ended, the Met launched a long-range attack and this time all the passes went to hand enabling full-back Matt Atherton to run in unopposed on the left touchline. A magnificent conversion by Sam Druce brought the half-time whistle with the Police 14-12 to the good.
The second half had a very different look to it. Skipper Cormac Healy demanded that his troops up their game and eradicate the mistakes that had led to the visitors' tries. Like any lawful order, the shift took it at face value and achieved a second-half shut-out. The forward pressure gave the referee plenty of opportunities to penalise Cranleighans at the scrum, and the visitors were visibly tiring as the Met found their cohesiveness. Nevertheless, the Met struggled to turn possession into points, seldom threatening the Cranleighan line until Healy bundled his way over on 61 minutes after strong running by Atherton on the right.
Druce added a 72nd minute penalty to extinguish any hopes of a losing bonus point for Old Cranleighans but the Met never looked like adding a try bonus to their tally and the game drifted to a 22-12 conclusion.

Given the immediate issues with selection and having looked at Old Cranleighans' recent history, the Met might have expected the worst, so in many ways Director of Rugby Jake Cottrell will have been very pleased with this result, although his overall frustration is clear. Recording a victory with a much changed starting XV and only two replacements, sorely tested when debutant Ethan Sutton-Davies left the field with a dislocated finger midway through the first half, indicates that great things are possible if the squad can actually come together at some (any?) point. A new look back row of Will Jarrett and Dan Dacre alongside stalwart Dylan Richards looked promising, and will be bolstered by the return of jet-setting Will Ferguson. Gavin Bolton, who had a rock-like performance starting a 1st XV match for the 23rd consecutive season, will be pleased to see the emergence of some young tyros so he can cancel the anti-inflammatories! There is a fairly intense period of fixtures approaching, including a Cup outing to Dyfed Powys on Wednesday. The Met has recorded two victories against teams who expected to be pushing for promotion this season and face a third, Kingston RFC, next Saturday. The Met will be getting to know each other in match conditions rather than on the training ground.