NEC Harlequins 42: 15 Newcastle Falcons

By kwin
January 2 2007

Oddly for what turned out to be such a one-sided affair, the match turned on a piece of luck: three minutes into the second half, 13-15 down following a disappointing, here-we-go-again first half the energetic Stuart Abbot hoofed a loose ball up the field and set off with Strettle in pursuit.

The ball bounced up for the winger who gathered and scored the first of what would be an afternoon’s hat trick. With Mehrtens adding the extras Quins were 20-15 up, and didn’t look back, scoring 29 unanswered points in the second half for a 42-15, five-pointer.

It wasn’t an afternoon of entirely unmitigated joy, however. Yet again Quins’ long-suffering fans endured another one of those 15 minutes of absence, most of which played with a man advantage as Newcastle worked out a sin-binning, but during which the team shipped two tries and 12 points, in the process turning a 10-0 lead into a 12-10 deficit.

What happens to the team in these moments is a mystery to me, and if it bothers the fans (and it does) it must worry the coaches even more. In the press conference afterwards Deano opined that a performance like today’s won’t be enough to see off Bath next week ‘if we play like we did today I don’t think we’ll win – we’ve got to step up another gear to beat Bath this weekend. … we were a little bit too loose … their two tries were a classic example of that, and I think Bath would capitalise on it just a bit more, and will offer just a little bit more up front’

Quins started well with a lot of pressure in the first twenty minutes, rewarded by a string of penalties (Mehrtens not making the most of them) and in due course a sin-binning (for killing the ball metres short of the line) , a lineout-and-drive to the corner to set up the first of five tries.

Quins pack were all over Newcastle, pulling them apart in the scrums where they were completely dominant, setting out their stall with an early win against the head, and Quins back row Volley, Easter and Vos were singled out for praise by Newcastle’s John Fletcher after the game.

In the backs Deane and Abbot combined very nicely their good understanding enabling some clever offloads and switches, and plenty of success breaking through the first line of defence. Quins have an embarrassment of riches at centre at the moment, with Luscombe and Turner-Hall injured we playing, I guess, our first and fourth choices, yet they easily outshone Newcastle’s young hopefuls, Flood and Tait (although to be fair Flood, especially, caught the eye as a definite talent. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of him in an England shirt)

8-0 up after twenty minutes, the score didn’t reflect the dominance that Quins had achieved, but with 15 against a 14 things looked good, and so it was, to say the least, frustrating to find ourselves 10-12 down a quarter of an hour later.

It was a scrappy period, with neither side able to create any convincing pattern, but Newcastle just shaded it, and one a couple of attacking penalties, which we confidently kicked into the corner. The second of these, Falcons shipped wide with May finding Mike Brown no obstacle 1-on-1 out wide, his strength carrying him through Abbot’s covering tackle and over the line.

Fine minutes later it all got worse – finally applying a bit of pressure, and close to Falcons’ line, a loose pass was intercepted by Eni Gessinde who sprinted a good 60 metres before being caught by the pursuing Brown, but able to offload to the supporting Winter, and Newcastle were in front.

In the dying minutes of the first half the two sides traded penalties, with Newcastle penalised (for once) for being offside around the maul, and Fuga lucky to stay on the pitch after a late tackle, and half-time saw Newcastle trot in the changing room 13-15 up, and no doubt extremely pleased with themselves.

In the second half, Quins pulled themselves together. It might have taken a bit of luck to get them going, but from 20-15 up they made their own. Mehrtens was able to capitalise on our forward dominance to steal a drop-goal. Steve So'oialo, Tani Fuga and Nick Easter created limitless go-forward with the ball, and Volley and Vos harried well, and Fuga tackled like a brick-wall.

10 minutes into the second half a long Mehrtens kick saw Newcastle caught in possession, knocking forward near their own line to set up a draining sequence of no fewer than seven consecutive scrums, as the referee tried to make sense of wheels, collapses and standing up (deliberate and otherwise). At the sixth So’oialo went over, but was judged held up. At the seventh Easter picked and drove, quick ball back to Mehrtens, a switch, and the ball was recycled to Strettle in the corner for his second try.

Now Quins were on top, and indulged themselves in the luxury of a triple substitution (by the end of the game all seven of the bench were on the field). A penalty in the middle was quickly taken by the on-form Steve So'oialo (in the conference Deano would remark that he had amply shown that he deserved the confidence that they all have in him) and Brown went over for the bonus point try.

33-15 up, with fifteen minutes to play, another game five days away, and a bonus point in the bag, it was understandable if Quins then eased up a little. Not that Newcastle did. The game was lost, but they were determined to salvage a little bit from the dying minutes, but when a hard driving rain started up, blowing directly into their faces (and emptying the south stand!) not even a consolation try looked likely. Indeed with the ball suddenly as slippery as a bar of soap Quins seized on a fumble and kicked through, Keogh pulled off the most extraordinary pick-up at speed and deserving to score, was caught close to line, recycling the ball out to Strettle for his hat-trick.

Steve So'oialo got man of the match for a trademark physical, quick-thinking performance. After the game Deano also highlighted Astin Croall’s who had a stand-out game in the front row.

The long-suffering Quins Season Ticket holders – who surely, by the way, don’t deserve the interminable scolding they have to endure from the man-with-mike (‘take your seats’, ‘sit-down in the east stand. ‘stand-up in row-F’, ‘be more punctual’ ‘be more noisy’…and so on and so on and so on) - will have seen 10 games so far this season (9 home plus the ‘away’ double header) in which we’ve managed four wins and six losses.

Not good enough yet - to my mind we should expect to see more wins than losses - the magic 50% feel-good win rate. But we might achieve that this season.

The next game is a big test – home to Bath, two points below us in the table, a win would see us going into the three-week GP break that follows in 6th or 7th and looking clear of trouble. A loss and we’re right back in the ‘dog-fight’ zone occupied by Newcastle, Northampton and Worcester.

NEC Harlequins
Aston Croall, Tani Fuga (Jimmy Richards, 60 mins), Mike Ross (Ricky Nebbett, 69 mins), Ollie Kohn, Jim Evans (Nicolas Spanghero, 44 mins), Andre Vos, Paul Volley (Will Skinner , 60 mins), Nick Easter (Chris Hala'Ufia, 64 mins), Steve So'oialo, Andrew Mehrtens (Adrian Jarvis, 60 mins), Simon Keogh, Stuart Abbott (Gavin Duffy, 64 mins), Mel Deane, David Strettle, Mike Brown.
Replacements: Jimmy Richards (Tani Fuga, 60 mins), Ricky Nebbett (Mike Ross, 69 mins), Nicolas Spanghero (Jim Evans, 44 mins), Chris Hala'Ufia (Nick Easter, 64 mins), Will Skinner (Paul Volley, 60 mins), Adrian Jarvis (Andrew Mehrtens, 60 mins), Gavin Duffy (Stuart Abbott, 64 mins)
Scorers:
Tries: Croall, Brown, Strettle (3); Conversions: Mehrtens (2), Jarvis (2); Penalties: Mehrtens (2); Drop Goal: Mehrtens

Newcastle Falcons
Matthew Burke (captain, Anthony Elliott, 14 mins), Tom May, Mathew Tait, Toby Flood, John Rudd, Loki Crichton (Tom Dillon, 48 mins), Lee Dickson (James Grindal, 71 mins), Jon Golding (Johnny Williams, 57 mins), Andy Long (Matt Thompson, 57 mins), Micky Ward, Andy Perry (Jason Oakes, 40 mins), Mark Sorenson, Eni Gesinde (Geoff Parling, 57 mins), Brent Wilson, Russell Winter
Replacements: Jonny Williams, Matt Thompson, Geoff Parling, Jason Oakes, Tom Dillon, James Grindal, Anthony Elliott
Scorers:
Tries: May, Winter; Conversion: Flood; Penalty: Flood

Referee: Wayne Barnes
Attendance: 10,837