Police 14 Teachers 12

Police closed out the local rugby season on a high as a last-gasp try by man-of-the-match Andrew Abdo gave them a 14-12 victory over league champions Teachers in the Nichol Shield final at the National Sports Centre last weekend.

As with most finals, both teams had nothing to lose and threw themselves forward in what turned out to be a thrilling match.

Three minutes into the game, Police were awarded a penalty in front of the Reds' posts after Teachers were caught offside in the breakdown.

Abdo stepped up and calmly slotted over the kick to give Police the early lead. Teachers then came back with some inspiring play but scrappy line-outs handed Police the advantage and effective use of Abdo's boot put them back into their opponents' half.

Twenty three minutes on, Abdo struck again with a drop goal resulting from another string of Teachers' penalties. Police now led 6-0 but Teachers immediately struck back with a fine passage of play down the right side. Chris Naylor put in a delightful chip that was scooped up by Gareth Warren who scored in the corner to reduce the deficit to 6-5.

However, in the 37th minute careless infractions from Teachers gave Abdo the chance to stretch the Police lead with a penalty 20 metres out and the Blues went into the interval leading 9-5.

After the break, Teachers picked up the pace with their back line putting pressure on the Police defence.

Reds scrum half, Graeme (Ginger) Ferguson begun to make effective use of his boot and the Teachers forwards came together nicely in the mauls and rucks. A handling mistake in the backs could have cost Teachers dearly with Jonathan Cassidy intercepting for a surging downfield break. But the cover tackling of winger Harry Andrews and full back Andre Simons prevented a certain score.

Twenty minutes into the half Teachers got the break they were looking for. Henry Adderley surged through a ruck to tackle Police scrum half Gareth Davies. The ball popped onto the deck, was scooped up by Ron Hook and passed to Chris Naylor. He ran 35 metres down the left flank, passing to Patrick Cooper who fed Simons for the score. Simons converted his own try and Teachers led for the first time, 12-9.

But just when it looked like Teachers would capture their second successive Shield, Abdo saved the day.

After the referee had signalled there was only 90 seconds left to play, Teachers were judged to be wasting time in the line-out and Police were awarded a penalty.

Electing to run the ball, they forced a scrum just inside the Reds 22 metre line. As the ball emerged from the back of the scrum and down the Police back line, Abdo passed to Cassidy who, despite being tackled by Warren Clifford and Kurt Leibel, was able to flip the ball back to a looping Abdo who touched down in the corner to the delight of the Police faithful.

The missed conversion didn't matter as the referee blew the whistle, capping off a great end to the season for Police.

This weekend will see a President's Select team take on the touring Lloyd's Rugby Football Club. The game will take place at 3 p.m. on Saturday at Police Field.