Teachers 14

Mariners 10

Teachers went into this game looking for a bonus point win to put pressure on leaders Renegades.

Windy conditions again played a part and it was Mariners who has the wind advantage in the opening half, but that did not prevent Teachers making promising early inroads and, after a series of midfield exchanges, Thomas "Tank" Greenslade niftily stole the ball and some quick hands saw a breakaway try from Frederick "Frenchie" Royer.

Chris Naylor converted to give the Reds a hard fought 7-0 lead.

Mariners rebounded and some strong running by Ryan Gonsalves eventually won them a penalty opportunity. Richard Holden's golden boot knocked over the effort to close the gap to 7-3.

Mariners began to use the wind wisely and the pressure paid off when standoff Alun Thomas combined with Richard Fisher on a superbly executed crash ball. A break down by the Red centers in tackle assignments saw Fisher bolt through and out sprint the desperate cover defense to score near the corner. Holden masterfully struck the conversion over from a difficult angle to take the score to 10-7 at the half time break.

In the second half Teachers mounted wave after wave of attacks but were repulsed by stout tackling, ever present Kris Furbert.

A predictable infringement at the breakdown gifted a penalty attempt by Chris Naylor but the ball agonising sailed by the outside of the post.

A try appeared on the cards but a shivering tackle by Anthony Cupidore on the hard charging Dustin Archibald created a knock on and the threat went begging.

Mariners urged themselves on sensing their first win of the season against Teachers but the war of attrition upfront was paying dividends as Teachers began winning consistent ball against the head in the scrums.

In the dying minutes of the game, Mariners were out on their feet and lost possession yet again in the scrum, Teachers number eight Bobby Hurdle picked up and went blind. He was stopped short of the line by a last ditch defensive effort but the ball was recycled and popped to Chris Way who plunged over for the winning try.

Naylor converted to make it 14-10. The final whistle saw relief etched across the Teachers faces whilst Mariners could barely contain their anguish at the nail biting defeat.