Met Police came back to earth with a bump after the midweek exploits, losing the opening league fixture of the year to struggling Old Whitgiftians. The Met were lacking some of the backbone of their team, having emptied the well against South Wales Police midweek, and were desperately lacking in support staff. Nevertheless, having beaten the visitors 43-0 in September, the Police must have expected their squad depth would have seen them home this time.
For the majority of the first half, it looked as though the Met had five league points in the bag. The Police pack continued where it left off on Wednesday, dominating a big but immobile Whitgift scrum and securing lineout ball with ease and precision. Co-captain Jack Doswell-Lowe was magnificent in the face of every opposition attack, and the front row of Padman, Allen and Borries prevented Whit's from maintaining territory. Tries from Rees, Atherton, Ferguson, and Stirrup, all converted by Fred Dalley, secured a first half bonus point. The visitors responded with a forward try in the opening five minutes and a try by inside centre Jordan Lewis in the 35th minute but a 28-17 lead appeared a comfortable cushion. The manner in which Lewis had twice strode through the Met defence might have sent warning signals but it was possibly the 38th minute yellow card for Joe Stirrup that changed the course of the match.
The Met's half-time talk must have lacked some clear-headed observation from the sidelines because for the next 25 minutes, Old Whitgiftians ran riot, particularly through the running of Jordan Lewis. The centre, with the build and speed of a wildebeest, demonised the Met defence, helped by the departure of the Met's Will Jarrett. Lewis created the space for Daniel Lewis to finish off a try on the right flank; converted his own, hat-trick try running back a very poor Met punt to nowhere from some 50 metres and put his centre partner, Charlie Petschi, in under the posts. The damage was accentuated by a second forwards try which secured the Old boys' own try bonus point and a 26 point swing to the Croydon outfit.
The Met were either mortified by the turnaround or well-rested after half an hour of doing very little and, quite remarkably staged their own come-back to recoup a losing bonus point to add to the try bonus achieved so long ago. Hooker Will Allen emerged from the bottom of a forward drive to claim the Met's fifth try and replacement back-row Josh Cockrell brought the Met within touching distance of the full five points. Dalley was unlucky with the conversion kicks and Whitgiftians had established enough self-belief to see out the final five minutes without further damage.
The Met would have benefitted from some composure behind the scrum. Any side missing the experience of the likes of Healy, Jardine and Druce would be likely to struggle but at half-time, the Met could only throw this one away. For sure, Jordan Lewis was a one man wrecking ball that even Miley Cyrus might struggle to straddle, and he contributed 23 points, but there are many players of his ilk in League two and, generally, the Met have handled them admirably. On this occasion, the Met crashed in a blazing fall - wrecked by a wrecking ball.