At last! The Met Police retained their League Two status with an exhilarating bonus point victory over relegation rivals Old Walcountians and, equally significantly, they started a match with a full squad for the first time this year.
When the Police play with precise attacking intent and diehard defence, they are the hardest team to play against in Surrey 2. The Met had secured a try bonus point by half-time with four excellent tries, including one on his home debut for the outstanding Jack Wansell, while restricting Old Walcountians to a solitary penalty goal. In the second half, the visitors outscored the Met by two tries to one and, but for magnificent defence, particularly from the Met's front row, they would have scored more.
It has been a frustrating second half to the season for the Met's coaching team. Before Christmas, the Met looked like they would at least have a say in the promotion race. Since demolishing Old Cranleighans in December, the Met has barely managed to field a XV, let alone run a meaningful training session. The frustration for Coach Graham Shaw is clear to see: there is a very able group of players on the Met's roster, they simply never train together and some are seldom available on Saturday! Not the easiest existence for any competitive sport team and not great for Shaw's coaching ambitions. Director of Rugby Jake Cottrell has already come to the end of his very long tether, and the Met's next season in Surrey 2 is likely to see a fresh management team plotting its success and working out how to get police officers to attend training.
Nevertheless, on Saturday the Met boasted a full complement of sirens blaring. An aggressive start forced Walcountians to concede an early penalty, calmly converted by Fred Dalley in his very prominent green underlayer. The visitors responded strongly but clumsy handling cost them dearly all afternoon and the only successful first-half attack was an eleventh minute penalty levelling the scores at 3-3. Although the Met struggled for parity at the lineout, the pack gradually establish dominance. Dalley finished off a period of Met pressure on the left, and then the best try of the afternoon resulted from a powerful charge by Will Ferguson into the old boys' 22, with his back row partner Jack Wansell on hand to claim the try, converted by Dalley. Chris Holloway, delaying his retirement for another week or so, scored a trademark converted try to add to his almanac of Police points and was unlucky not to add to his tally with several muscular bursts in the second half. Conor Finch, who otherwise had an impressive outing at inside centre, turned into the cover with a two man overlap to his left but a magnificent driving maul by the Police pack set up a relatively simple finish for skipper Cormac Healy to glide his way over under the posts and claim the Met's fourth try and a bonus point.
Even with a 26 point lead, the Met supporters and coaching team still faced the second half with trepidation. The Met's lack of preparation over the past 10 weeks has seen vast numbers of points shipped in the last half hour of four of their five defeats (they didn't turn up at all to the fifth!) and, although Walcountians were down on the scoreboard, they definitely were not out.
The Met started the half well and Dalley kicked his second penalty to ensure that the visitors would have to secure a try bonus if they were to get a losing point. To give Walcountians full credit, they set about the task with gusto. They were constantly thwarted by their own handling calamities, a lack of clarity in midfield and a valiant and mostly solid defence. The Met boilerhouse of Short and Doswell-Lowe worked tirelessly and No8 Richards was a constant irritant to both opponents and the referee. A long period of pressure in the Met 22 appeared to have been alleviated by a daring steal by Jack Scott at the back of a Walcountian scrum but the Met scrum half followed it up with two moments of aberration that gifted possession and territory back to the bristling old boys' pack. Superb defending, particularly from Finch, Will Jay, Kofi Butcher and the front row union of Bailey and Broadhead repulsed the black-shirted swarms. The penalty count against the Met started to rack up and eventually Old Walcountians registered the converted try that their efforts merited.
In a pleasing mea culpe, Scott found himself as the supporting act to one of Holloway's lung-busting runs and ran in a try of his own which Holloway converted. It would be somewhat bizarre if Holloway's last contribution in a Met jersey turns out to be a kick at goal!
There was time for one more effort from Walcountians who now find their League Two survival somewhat reliant on the Met not losing at Old Blues on the last day of the league season. With the clock in the red, Walcountians ran in a second converted try but it was never going to take the gloss of a very satisfying Met performance which demonstrated all the best aspects of Met Police rugby.