Mariners recorded their biggest win in First Division rugby when they easily ran past a weak Police outfit in this dour encounter.

The lack of regular first XV players in both sets of forwards resulted in poor forward skills, particularly at ruck and mauls where referee Dennis Dwyer had no option but to penalize at least 50 percent of them, primarily in Mariners' favour.

Josh McGavern had a brilliant game at scrum half against his arch rival Gareth Davies and the only chink in his armour was his failure with the boot. He only converted two of seven tries and one of three penalties for a 30% accuracy rate.

Police had no chance with a predominantly 2nd XV pack but Gareth Lewis at full back created lots of space on his runs and had good support from center Alex Rollins.

However, Jonathan Cassidy failed to impress as the other centre, often losing the ball in contact and unable to make any breaks on the crash ball. Alan Oliver, back from retirement (again!) still showed glimpses of his past with some fine kicking and running but was starved of possession.

Mariners had set a furious pace at the start with Danny McGavern cutting through from full back after five minutes and feeding guest Fijian prop Semi Molidegei to cross in the corner.

Molidegei crossed for his second after 15 minutes when Josh McGavern made inroads into Police's half after good rucking. Second row Semi Davui created Mariners third try by barging two would-be tacklers out of his way before feeding Danny McGavern to score. The first half score of 18-0 was followed by a second half onslaught that brought four more tries through Gavin Cocorron -- a 50-metre gem -- Mike Smith, Danny McGavern and Kevin Smith.

A great consolation try came for Police in the final minute when youth player Ralshon Douglas scored under the posts after outpacing several Mariners defenders.

Renegades 13 Teachers 26 Patrick Cooper, in his last game for Teachers before moving to Calgary, scored the crucial try that put the game beyond reach at 19-6 with 15 minutes left in the game.

Cooper's pick up and drive from the base of the scrum showed the weakness in the Renegades' back row since Shane Gill's departure to the UK in December.

But it was not all plain sailing for the Teachers' pack who, in the first half, were outjumped in the lineout, driven back in the scrums and outmauled by an aggressive Renegades pack.

The Gades' forward dominance kept them in the lead by 3-0 for 30 minutes of the first half. Then Nathan Brown, who had his best performance for Teachers, cut loose, carving up the Renegades centres with ease and creating big gaps that were exploited by the ever-present Andrew Correia at full back. Heath Robinson scored Teachers first try after Brown had broken the defence, but Renegades still had the lead at the half by 6-5 courtesy of Phil Heaney's two penalties.

At the start of the second half it was Brown again who intercepted a move from a scrum against the head by Renegades and ran 70 metres before handing off to Correia and then to Jeff Sangster to score. Craig McIntyre drove the final nail in the Renegades coffin with a try with 10 minutes left after Dennis Cherry had crashed through a weak Gades defence. With the score at 26-6, a concerted last effort by Renegades forwards saw Trevor Roberts crash over.

In second XV action, Teachers slammed Renegades 54-12.

The Bermuda Rugby Football Union has decided to re-arrange all remaining second XV fixtures as a development measure. From January 22, second XV rugby will revert to a round robin format every Saturday involving three teams.

Teachers, Renegades and a combined Police/Mariners/Youth development squad will play each other in three games of 20-minute halves. Teachers have won the second team Beck's league. All First XV matches will therefore revert to the old format of both matches on Sundays for the rest of the season. In addition, a `Millennium Sevens' will be played this Sunday involving one team from each club plus a president's team. The 10-match format will start at 1 pm with Police taking on the President's seven.