finishing the day undefeated yesterday during the Sandys Boat Club tournament, the unofficial kick-off of the domestic rugby season.

The tournament featured some rough play with a member of Teachers needing stitches after being bitten by a player.

After drawing 10-10 with Police in the first game, Teachers hammered Renegades 19-0 and Mariners 17-0 in round-robin competition.

Mariners, who start the season next week with their strongest line-up ever, had earlier beaten Police 14-5 and tied Renegades 5-5.

Ironically it was Police -- although never winning a game on the day -- who gave Teachers a fright in the first game. Scrum-half Gareth Davies was in fine form, exploiting the blind side with his usual expertise and lock Danny Cozens using his enormous size and presence to batter the Teachers forwards.

Unfortunately there were some unsavoury moments in the Teachers-Renegades game when Renegades' rookie flanker Kevin Murphy was sent off after several warnings for foul play. Teachers hooker David Cook had to leave the field following an incident that required three stitches in his jaw after being bitten by Murphy. Teachers are planning to protest Murphy's unsportsmanlike play with the Bermuda Football Rugby Union.

Nevertheless, the referees did a fine job of curbing the flashpoint violence that all too often in the past has resulted in ejections of players.

Teachers got better as the day wore on with their forwards driving relentlessly in the rucks and mauls and their backs displaying a lot of cohesion resulting in three excellent tries for wing Heath Robinson, the top try scorer of the day. Mariners showed glimpses of brilliance in the attack but were lacking in defensive tackling skills. Renegades had an ordinary day, but in all fairness were missing a few regulars, with Danny Forsythe nursing an injured hamstring, and Ali Nicholls and Tom Dixon off the island.

New Renegades captain Pat Jones played well at full-back but was forced to leave the game with a nasty thigh injury halfway through the tournament.

Police are yearning for several quality players but showed a lot of spunk against more skillful teams.

It appears that Teachers will start the season next Sunday as favourites but Mariners, once the sad-sack team of the league, look strong and previous champions Renegades should not be counted out. Police have some rebuilding to do and could surprise as the season progresses.