Five In A Row!

By AlanQuin
November 13 2002

A comprehensive victory by 43 to 20 points brought the 2nd XV its fifth successive success. Most of the interest in this match, however, was the reappearance after injuries of Dan Luger and Paul Burke. James Hayter played his first game for the Club after 19 months. All three were welcome sights.

The team that took the pitch and played the first half was clearly much stronger and more inventive than the University. The result was two tries within 7 minutes. First, quick effective passing across the backs to the right with a final inside pass put Henry Barratt over. Then Tom Williams, who evaded three tackles for the try, finished a similar quick passing move. Paul Burke converted both tries.

The University tried to respond and gained a penalty in front of the posts on the 22 metre line which Pinkster kicked to bring the score to 14 – 3. But a penalty against them for offside allowed Burke an easy score. 17 – 3. Once again the University tried to take the attack to Quins, but elementary mistakes and missed passes blunted their efforts and the Quins defence held firm.

As the second quarter began Quins ran the ball out of defence in a series of quick accurate passes ending with a kick through for Tom Williams to run onto and score his second try. Duly converted by Paul Burke to bring the score to 24 – 3 after only 23 minutes. Once again the University responded by some intensive and almost effective attacking coming within a few metres of the Quins line. The ball was turned over and Burke cleared. A further Quins attack led to a chip through being carried over by Cambridge and from the resultant 5 metre scrum a set-piece move put Dan Luger over for the fourth try. Luger was immediately substituted by Powell as Burke converted to bring the score to 31- 3.

Renewed pressure by the Blues eventually put Simon “The Pimp”(sic) Frost across in the corner and the conversion by Edwards brought the score to 31 – 10 at half-time.

Burke, having shown that his kicking was as accurate as ever was replaced by Fitzgerald fat the start of the second half. Quins were out of the block quickly, moving the ball fluidly to give the increasingly impressive Tom Williams his third try. But gradually the substitutions on both sides caused the game to lose shape as more and more players seemed to be playing to no game plan.

The University eventually scored a push-over try through their hooker, Collins, which was duly coverted . The scoring finished when a splendid cross-kick by Fitzgerald was caught by Scott Bemand and touched down.


NEC Harlequins 2nd XV: Williams (Osha, 69 min), Barratt, Luger (Powell, 36 min), Jewell, Wilcocks, Burke (FitzGerald, 41 min), Bemand, Cardinali, Hayter (Hopkins, 64 min), Dawson, Rudzki (Evans, 62 min), Miall, Griffin (Mockford, 56 min), Sherriff, Horstmann

Cambridge University XV: McGrath, Kingsbury, Pinkster, Frost, Morel (Abiola, 49 min), Edwards (Stephens, 46 min), Sinnett (Dormer, 41 min), Bosch (Forde, 23 min), Collins, Reilly, Purdy, Robinson, Scrimgeour, Garden, Hocken
Replacements not used: Gladstone, Snaith, Saddler