diff --git a/polkadot/scripts/gitlab/check_runtime.sh b/polkadot/scripts/gitlab/check_runtime.sh
index 7b2a4a1faf..21dfc74be9 100755
--- a/polkadot/scripts/gitlab/check_runtime.sh
+++ b/polkadot/scripts/gitlab/check_runtime.sh
@@ -24,7 +24,10 @@ SUBSTRATE_REPO_CARGO="git\+${SUBSTRATE_REPO}"
 SUBSTRATE_VERSIONS_FILE="bin/node/runtime/src/lib.rs"
 
 # figure out the latest release tag
-LATEST_TAG="$(git tag -l | grep -E '^v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$' | sort -V | tail -n 1)"
+boldprint "make sure we have all tags (including those from the release branch)"
+git fetch --depth="${GIT_DEPTH:-100}" origin release
+git fetch --depth="${GIT_DEPTH:-100}" origin 'refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*'
+LATEST_TAG="$(git tag -l | grep -E '^v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+-?[0-9]*$' | sort -V | tail -n 1)"
 boldprint "latest release tag ${LATEST_TAG}"
 
 boldprint "latest 10 commits of ${CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME}"
@@ -33,6 +36,7 @@ git --no-pager log --graph --oneline --decorate=short -n 10
 boldprint "make sure the master branch is available in shallow clones"
 git fetch --depth="${GIT_DEPTH:-100}" origin master
 
+
 runtimes=(
   "kusama"
   "polkadot"