Met Police Drive Over Old Ruts To Keep Promotion On Track

The long haul to the end of the season is upon us. There are six tough games remaining for the Met and every one is crucial if the dream of promotion is to become a reality writes Simon Hall.
The Mets’ first challenge of the run-in was against Old Ruts who had recently put another promotion-chasing team to the sword. Ruts are a young yet very capable outfit. There was no way that the Met could enter this match with less than 100% commitment. The crowd were promised a spectacle to compensate for the absence of Six Nations action.
Having lost the toss but nevertheless playing into the wind, the Met started off in their usual fashion, slowly, whilst Old Ruts seemed determined to break every speed record in the book. It was not long before the crowd were delighted with Old Ruts first try of the game, converted by their 10. Shocked clearly, the Met were quick to respond, and the fashion epitomised the Club’s season.
The pack began to make ground around the fringes, capitalising on Old Ruts’ youth and enthusiasm to lure them offside at the rucks. It was not long before the pressure turned into points with a thundering dart for the line by debutant prop , Sam Walsh AKA Shaw.
A quick tap penalty from the Ruts’ scrum-half quickly re-established a 7 point margin as he caught the Police asleep. The Met re-grouped and reasserted the game plan. Some twenty phases of play was finished off by winger Will Jay who acrobatically put the ball down in the corner on the stroke of half time making it Old Ruts 12 Met Police 10.
With the wind at their backs, the Met started the second half with a kicking barrage until it became apparent that the Old Ruts had a very good running full back. He responded with some powerful counter-attacking runs. Only the Mets’ discipline controlled the game’s direction and two penalties in front of the posts kicked by Connelly eased the Met ahead into an unassailable lead. A strike against the head saw The Met No 8, Chris Kiernan bulldozer over the line for The Mets third try and a sniff of a bonus point win. Connolly’s conversion took the visitors two scores clear.
Old Ruts showed their potential for possibly next year with some concerted pressure of their own. The Met have proved to be resilient in defence and it took a flash of individual skill from Ruts’ fly-half who put a grubber kick through the flying defence and went in for a great solo try although he could not add the two points. The Met had one more major play: a string of penalties against Old Ruts eventually enabled Connolly to kick to the corner. The resultant lineout was caught and driving toward the line and, as it reached the final metre, scrum half Simon Hall was taken out by a defender resulting in a penalty try which Connolly converted after some controversy as Ruts initially kicked the ball from the tee. The Met achieved the bonus point victory by 30 to 17 with promotion and a Poice Cup success very much on the horizon.
Next week sees MPRFC take on third placed Old Haileyburians at Imber Court, 3pm Kick Off, Saturday 11th March 2017.