Players from a number of Leinster Clubs were to the fore as the Ireland Police Team, which features players from the Garda and PSNI Forces – including Team Captain Damien Broughall (Cill Dara) and Man-of-the-Match Adrian Hanley (Tullamore) – defeated the British Police Team recently…

The stature of this fixture was such that it was played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, with the Presidents of the IRFU and WRU in attendance along with the new Sponsors of Ireland Police Rugby, Stanley Security Solutions.

The British Team were quickly out of the blocks and dominated the first 20 minutes, building a 13 – Nil lead through a Try, Conversion and two penalties from their out-half. Three Paddy O’Toole penalties brought the Half-Time score to 13-9.

Some big carries at start of the second half by John Dever (Terenure), led to a try by Andy Hamlin to put them into the lead at 14 – 13. The British Team came back strongly and re-took the lead with 18 minutes to go with another penalty.

The Irish Team responded with another O’Toole penalty to give them a one point lead came back strongly and another penalty saw them take the lead. Heroic defending from Ivor Scully (Tullamore), Ben Silverlock (Greystones) and Enda Muldoon (Garda), kept the lead intact until Kevin Dingley (Garda), intercepted a pass and ran 85metres to score in the corner to secure a 22 -16 win.

The intensity and quality of play was a great advertisement for Representative Police Rugby, players while always played in the best spirit of the game.

This victory follows on from the Irish Team’s historic victory in their first ever fixture against the French Police in Paris and the French Team will come to Dublin seeking revenge on the 8th of March 2013.