Quins Reserves defeat the Army

By The Prof
February 27 2003

A large crowd turned out to see a number of first team players return to action for the second team as they took on the Army at Aldershot.

The first sight that greeted us when we arrived was our Argentine prop, Pablo Cardinali, chatting with JK, the team sheet had him down to play but the fact he was in a pair of chinos and a jumper suggested he might not take the field. It turned out that Quins’ run of bad luck was continuing and Bruce Starr had broken his arm in yet another training accident so Pablo would be needed for Sunday’s match against Bristol and wouldn’t play tonight.

Apologies if I have mistaken any of the players, the team wasn’t exactly as printed on the team sheet and my eyesight isn’t what it once was.

A minute’s silence was held before kick off in memory of Nick Duncombe.

Quins kicked off and the Army gathered the ball, recycled it well and kicked to the Quins 10m line. The Quins line was solid and the ball was passed wide to Matty Moore who made a typically mazy run but eventually the ball was knocked on by a Quins hand and a scrum was awarded to the Army.

Even with a young front row of Sam Walton, James Hayter and Ben Hopkins the Quins pack had the upper hand and won the ball against the head, but Quins were penalised for holding on in the resulting ruck and the Army had a penalty which they punted to touch deep in Quins territory.

They won their own lineout ball and passed the ball right and quickly recycled the ball before a slack pass sent the ball into touch. The Quins line out was again dependable with Hayter throwing well and Bill Davison taking the ball well about 15m from our own line. The ball was carried up the middle by the forwards before Adrian Jarvis (Quins’ young fly half) cleared the ball downfield but the Army returned the kick and Quins had another line out.

The ball was again thrown to Billy Davison and a good rolling maul was set up, the pass out to Jarvis was picked up well off his toes to feed the ball to Nick Greenstock who made a good break before offloading the ball to Chris Bell who ran in to score, Jarvis converted (0-7, 8 mins).

The restart was received by Hayter who fed the ball to Moore who was tackled and a penalty was awarded to the Army for not joining the ruck from behind the back foot, Dan Coen pulled the ball to the left of the posts and the score remained 0-7.

The drop out was kicked deep and Viljen, the Army full back, returned the kick as did Quins before the Army 15 knocked on giving a scrum to Quins on the half way line. The scrum was solid and the ball was sent left to Rob Jewell who made a fine break up the wing before he was stopped, the ball was recycled well and Jarvis put in a cross-field kick to the right wing, sadly the ball was collected by Green (the Army wing) who ran upfield with no defenders in front of him. Good covering tackles by Jarvis and Davison stopped the breakaway and the ball went into touch for an Army line out.

The Army again showed speed in midfield combined with fast hands to attack the Quins line, but our defence was up to the task .

Karl Rudzki was penalised for going off his feet at a ruck, Coen kicked for touch, the Army won the ball but a scrum was awarded to Quins from which Jarvis cleared to the half way line. This to and fro kicking continued in the middle of the pitch before the Army were awarded a free kick which was taken quickly and lead to Coen scuffing a drop goal just over the bar to bring the score back to 3-7 after 22 minutes.

The restart lead to a Quins knock on and from the scrum Coen kicked deep and the ball was returned to give the Army a line out on the half way line. Rudzki stole the ball and Jarvis made a break before being tackled and offloading the ball to Rudzki who recycled to Mockford who popped the ball to Powell (who was wearing a number 16 shirt, the number 9 not being used in honour of Nick) who scored beside the posts. Jarvis again converted 3-14, 27 minutes.

Another knock on came from the restart and the Army won their scrum even though it was under pressure and they attacked with a chip over the Quins defence but Slemen was there at full back to mark the ball. The ball was cleared to the half way line before a scrum was awarded to Quins 5m into the Army half. The ball was passed to Jewell who was half tackled but managed to make another six or seven yards by crawling at speed along the ground before the ball was kicked to touch by the Army.

Mockford won the line out and the ball was passed to Walton who powered through the Army defence to score to the left of the posts. Jarvis again added the extra 2 points to leave Quins 3-21 up after 32 minutes.

The restart was again followed by kicks from both sides trying to get good field position. Eventually Horstmann made a good break through the centre and offloaded to Jarvis who made more ground before passing to Moore within sight of the line and with a three man overlap outside him but sadly he knocked on and the attack came to nothing.

The Army cleared to the half way after a penalty but a knock on in mid field handed a scrum to Quins in the middle of the pitch, the ball was passed left to Jarvis who passed to Bell who charged through but was stopped just short of the line. Quins continued to attack and the ball was passed right to Horstmann who with three defenders to beat wide out on the right decided to do a Samoan side step and although he was well tackled he stretched out his right arm and just made the line. Jarvis just missed the conversion from wide out on the right touch line to leave the score 3-26 (42 mins). This remained the score at half time after some good defensive play from the Army.

The Army started the second half and a knock on lead to a Quins scrum and the ball was cleared to the half way. Davison won the ball in the line out but Powell couldn’t gather it and the Army attacked with a large Fijian running at the Quins line only to be almost cut in half by a tackle from Roy Winters, a shout of “Nice tackle Roy!” came from a woman just to my left but whether she was watching the game or whether it was just a lucky coincidence we shall never know!

The Quins scrum generally had their opposition under pressure for much of the game and in the second half they tried turning the Army and although it looked like the scrums had gone through a lot more than 180 degrees on a number of occasions the referee (who had a very good game as did his touch judges – yes, I kid you not) didn’t give the scrum to Quins.

The Army had a lot of ball at the start of the second half but Quins were awarded a penalty for holding on. The ball was kicked to touch and Horstmann collected the ball and a rolling maul was set up, the ball went to Greenstock, who passed to Bell who almost ran into the posts as he was tackled but he was eventually sent over to score from the resulting maul. Jarvis converted from in front of the posts and the lead increased to 3-33 after 10 minutes. Soon after Bell, Greenstock and Winters were pulled off by the management to be replaced by Barratt, Reay and Griffin.

Slemen missed touch with a long clearance kick that looked like it might go behind the Army’s dead ball line but their right wing collected it and sent off on a cross-field run to pass to the left wing (Green?) who showed incredible pace up the left wing to score in the right corner. The difficult conversion was missed to leave the score 8-33 after 10 minutes.

Yet another knock on followed the restart which allowed the young Quins centres to break through the middle before the ball found its way to Billy Davison who powered over the line from short range, Jarvis got the conversion from wide out on the right to make the score 8-40 after 12 minutes. Davison was pulled off to be replaced by Simon Miall.

Quins lineout ball was thrown to Griffin who charged through the middle taking a few defenders with him, Jarvis then kicked to touch about 15m from the Army line. Quins won the resulting line out but the ball was knocked on during close passing but Quins put pressure on the Army scrum so their scrum half passed under pressure and the ball went behind their line and resulted in a Quins 5m scrum. Quins’ scrum was solid but Jarvis uncharacteristically knocked on. Quins won another ball against the head but there was another knock on and the Army were awarded a penalty for off side (?).

They kicked to touch but Miall stole the ball in the line out, the ball was passed to Barratt (?) then to Mockford who made a break and passed to Jewell and eventually Quins were awarded a scrum for an Army knock on in a ruck. Barratt made a break from the line out but was penalised for holding on after being tackled.

Quins again won the line out and Mockford made a break but the ball was stolen from the rolling maul and the Army cleared. The ball was thrown a little high so was missed by all in the line out but cleaned up by Quins.

A number of phases of scrappy play followed with knock ons by both sides. A penalty was awarded to the Army which they tapped and ran, another penalty followed for pulling the maul down and the Army number 14 ran in in the left hand corner to score. The conversion from the touch line was achieved to leave the score on15-40 with about ten minutes remaining.

Yet another knock on happened from the restart, the Army won the scrum but kicked out on the full, the ball was overthrown again and the Army recovered the ball and were awarded a penalty for hands in the ruck on the half way line. The Army attacked spinning the ball right only for the ball to be intercepted by Horstmann who ran in from 55m out to score, Jarvis converted again (15-47 37 mins).

The Army were awarded another penalty soon after the restart which they ran again, strong tackling by Quins midfield led to a turnover and a break by Barratt (?) followed by a pass right to Moore allowed the first team winger to run round to score. Jarvis missed the conversion to leave the score 15-52 as the final whistle went.

All in all it was a fine display by the seconds against an Army side who played hard until the final whistle. The pack had a good game and Jarvis was outstanding at flyhalf. The centre partnerships of Greenstock & Bell and Reay and Barratt performed very well. It was certainly good to see Winters back too and I am sure a few of the Army players will remember him until their bruises fade. The huge supporter turn out was great to see too.

Quins 2nd XV: Dave Slemen, Matt Moore, Chris Bell (Henry Barrat, 50 min), Nick Greenstock (Andrew Reay, 50 min), Rob Jewell, Adrian Jarvis, Matthew Powell, Sam Walton, James Hayter, Ben Hopkins, Karl Rudzki, Bill Davison (Simon Miall, 62 min), Roy Winters (Darryl Griffin, 50 min), Alex Mockford, Kai Horstmann

Replacements not used: Jim Evans, Ian Martin