Police staged a remarkable recovery to come back from 19-5 down and beat Mariners on the opening day of the Bermuda Rugby Football Union's First Division season on Saturday at Malabar Field.

Kiwi standoff Andrew Flint crashed over for the match-winning try three minutes from time, as Mariners finally yielded under heavy pressure.

Police secured the maximum five points for their win, including a bonus point for scoring four tries - a new feature introduced by the BRFU this season, in line with Rugby Football Union scoring.

In the second match, league champions Renegades also put on a late show, scoring two tries in the last three minutes to achieve a come-from-behind 21-13 victory over Teachers.

New centre Richard Holden slotted over three penalties to give the improved Mariners side an early 9-0 lead.

Police fought back after an unfortunate knock on the head for their new scrum-half Mike Arbuthnot ended his day prematurely. From the resulting scrum, Police man-of-the-match Joel Blyde crossed the line for an unconverted try. But Holden increased Mariners' lead to 12-5 with a well-struck penalty on the stroke of half-time.

Mariners extended their lead against the run of play in the second half. Police looked to run the ball wide from a clearing Mariners kick, but Luke Millward read the pass beautifully, intercepted and had the pace to run three-quarters of the length of the pitch to score under the posts. The successful conversion gave Mariners a 19-5 lead.

Police cut the deficit when Flint capitalised on some good structured phases to cross over out wide for an unconverted try. And when the fiery Ken O'Shea burst through from close range and Flint converted, the margin narrowed to 19-17.

Mariners' number eight Gary Brady was replaced after tackling himself to a standstill. With three minutes to go, the Greens' defence cracked after a five-metre scrum, which led to Flint's second try, which was converted to give Police a five-point margin of victory.

Renegades dominated the first half hour of the second match, both territorially and in ball possession and the champions went ahead when Renegades stand-off Paul Waldburger made the most of a lucky bounce of the ball beneath the Reds' posts and touched down for a converted try.

Renegades started the second half with a 7-0 lead, but Teachers' forwards began to seize the initiave led by Noel Devrae Simmons and Thomas (Tank) Greenslade. A slick Teachers move involving Jeff Sangster and flanker Michael Barkheizen ended with Naylor scoring the try, but the same player then missed a straightforward conversion to leave Teachers trailing 5-7.

Off the restart Derek Hurdle showed his West Indies rugby pedigree when he broke from the base of a scrum, wriggled through some weak tackling and scampered 30 yards before releasing long-haired flanker Andrew Hook to score his debut try and inched the Reds ahead 10-7. Naylor added a long-range drop goal to extend his side's lead to 13-7 with 10 minutes to go.

Renegades bounced back with three minutes to go. They got a lucky break when a kick ahead cruelly bounced off the knees of the hapless Naylor straight up into the air and into the waiting hands of speedster Darragh O'Donoghue who touched down in the corner. O'Donoghue made the difficult conversion to give Mariners a 14-13 lead.

Teachers desperately pushed forward but a quick turnover in the dying seconds found their defence out of position and Scott Slater capitalised by scoring a last-gasp, converted try to seal a 21-13 win.