They came in from the Kent borders like a wrecking ball but Croydon were never going to break down the solid wall of the Met Police and in the end it was the Force who left Croydon in a crashing fall writes Gilbert Ball.
On a very warm October afternoon, Croydon arrived with just 16 players and proceeded to hammer at the Met defence with very little thought for their own well-being and seemingly with little thought of a Plan B. The Met for their part, soaked everything up and, even without the blistering pace that has been a mark of the outside backs for the last twelve months or more, rattled up seven tries to ensure their third consecutive bonus point win.
Tries from Healy, Hall, Vatu, Jay and two from Cartledge along with a penalty try more than made up for the lack of a fit goal kicker, with the usually reliable Connelly managing just one conversion. The Croydon game plan inevitably caused some tempers to fray but the game itself never lost its spirit, even though the referee distributed a yellow card to each side and sent off one from Croydon. Amazingly, it was when they were down to fourteen that the visitors had their most productive spell, establishing a period in the Met's half from which they scored two unconverted, and unanswered tries. The Met can look back on a win that was achieved against a team that played all its rugby upfront and it is credit to them, and in particular the "old boys, Gav Bolton and Ben Markham, that it took Croydon over 70 minutes to get a sniff of the Met try line. For the most part the Met looked untroubled and a little more precision out wide may have secured a much bigger victory.
The League now has a fallow week before the Met travel to London Media, who re-wrote last season's script with a shock victory against the Met. The Police require a big win to get themselves back ahead of the two Old Boys clubs, Caterhamians and Rutlishians, whose free-scoring start to the season continues unabated.