This giant-killing achievement by Mariners -- their first victory against Renegades all year -- will be remembered by the enthusiastic crowd for some time to come. Having lost all five games to Renegades, Mariners looked like a team possessed in the second Rothmans Shield semifinal at National Sports Club on Saturday.

Mariners shook the normally composed Renegades in the first 10 minutes when their forwards drove Renegades' scrum, winning easily every put-in.

Line-outs also went Mariners' way and Renegades were left with scraps of loose ball to play with. Even with this meagre possession, the Renegades backs looked dangerous when fly-half Roddy Moore straightened out his back row.

The half-time score was only 3-0 to Renegades thanks to an impressive 40-yard drop goal by Martin Jinks.

Mariners came out in the second half all guns ablaze and the ferocious forward exchanges made the crowd cringe.

Following a dangerous tackle on Mariners' wing Ben Jollife, a brawl erupted with over half the players involved. That resulted in the marching orders for Terry Madeiros of Mariners and Moore of Renegades.

This seemed to dampen Renegades' spirits and Mariners took control from there, with a fine display of handling in the back.

Mark Pettingill, on a tremendous return for Mariners at outside half, inspired his team with his first try after a long throw in the line-out. Pettingill scored again 10 minutes later with a drop goal that crept over the crossbar to push the score to 8-3.

Mariners supporters, sensing victory, became even more boisterous, and the players responded with an all-out assault on the Renegades line. This was rewarded again with a try by Alec Roberts, who picked up the ball after John Lalone's storming run when he was stopped near the goal posts. The final conversion put the game beyond doubt and Mariners now face Teachers in the final next Sunday at 2 p.m.

Teachers 8, Police 5 Substitute number eight Tim White sealed Police's fate with a pushover try in the final minute of injury time after Teachers had dominated the second half with controlled possession in the scrums and mauls during the first match.

Police, however, looked the more determined side in the first half and their tackling was superb. For Police, number eight Steve Parkinson scored after 15 minutes when they opted to run the ball instead of taking a certain three-point penalty. This additional two points was all they needed to put pressure on a rather lethargic Teachers outfit.

The Teachers backs had an unhappy day, which was riddled by unforced errors from dropped or badly-timed passes.

Pat McHugh replied for Teachers with a penalty kick to bring the half-time score to 5-3 for Police.

In the second half, Teachers wisely decided to contain the possession with their more experienced forwards and Anthony Cupidor and Mike Harding were always in the middle of the forward exchanges. After 10 minutes of unrelenting scrummaging superiority near the Police try-line, White dribbled the ball over the line at the back of the scrum and scored a try for a nail-biting victory for Teachers.