Teachers outfit in this thrilling encounter at National Sports Club yesterday.

There were five lead changes in the match, which saw Teachers finally able to overcome their favoured opponents 25-20.

Teachers, although below strength, produced a gritty performance that showed real commitment and pride.

Teachers' three tries were scored by forwards in contrast to Renegades' tries, which were scored by their backs.

The spunky Teachers forwards worked tirelessly to provide Andrew Correia with a steady supply of ball even though they were well beaten in the line-out.

Correia linked well with his backs and had great support from Richard Raistrick and Patrick Cooper, who picked up two tries for his efforts.

Renegades never achieved their championship form and lacked fire in the forward exchanges.

Matt Gorman was the only Renegades back that played with the usual finesse and scored two good tries on the wing from aggressive running.

Correia had his best game with the boot, slotting over two crucial conversions and the penalty.

In the first half Teachers had lapses of concentration in the centre, which Renegades pounced on and resulted in Tom Dixon scoring their first try to bring the score to 10-5.

Just before the half Cooper took his second converted try after a scintillating run by Correia to give Teachers a 12-10 lead at the half.

The nailbiting second half saw Gorman produce his two tries for Renegades to one from Teachers hooker David Cooke who finished off another fine run by Cooper.

With the score 22-20 in Teachers' favour and with 10 minutes to go Michael Montgomery dropped a sweetly-struck goal to give Teachers the final lead of 25-20.

Mariners 28, Police 5 Mariners turned around a 5-0 deficit to score the next 28 points without reply and record a historic third win for the season in the first game.

Troy Glasgow scored the opener for Police after 30 minutes following a good rolling maul.

Mariners' forwards gained a lot of possession, performing well in all phases of the game. And this was used very efficiently by their improving back line where Donnie Soares and Gavin Corcoran shone above the rest.

In all it was a good all-round display by the forwards with Marty Vink getting the edge in the line-outs and the back-row members particularly aggressive, with the relatively unknown John Brossard getting the Amstel Player of the Week for good support play and general harassment of the opposition.

Mariners led 6-5 at half-time following a drop goal by Dave Conway and a penalty by Mike Gorman.

In the second half Corcoran outstripped the Police defence for a try, Gorman added the conversion and another penalty to put Mariners 16-5 ahead with 20 minutes to full time.

From this point on nothing went right for Police and an uncharacteristic fumble by Gareth Davis from a line-out allowed Vink to pick up and score an easy try.

Mariners' last try was undoubtedly the best of the day with the ball passing through eight pairs of hands before Danny Soares beat two defenders to cross for the final try.