Shed no tears for Quins

Good, bad & ugly?
By Will Warner
April 27 2003

Gloucester didn’t play that well but thoroughly deserved their win. Quins didn’t play that badly, but were simply not good enough. “It was a patchy display” Mark Evans said at the after match press conference - which is a fair account of proceedings.

Quins had the better of the second quarter and then started the second half strongly. The fierce wind blowing in Gloucester’s favour had died down over half time and was now swirling. At one point the flags on top of the posts were blowing towards each other. Quins were attacking and slowly making yardage, but as ever slow distribution allowed the excellent Gloucester defence to regroup. Will Greenwood’s pass was a bit telegraphed and James Simpson-Daniel intercepted to run unopposed half the length of the field.14-6 became 19-6, and then 21-6 with Ludovic Mercier’s conversion. The game at that point probably had one winner: Glaws were hunting for their bonus point and the top of the table berth.

(Will Warner)

Earlier, the game had a scrappy opening with first Glaws on top then Quins clawing themselves back into the game. Henry Paul was simply outstanding. When he wasn’t orchestrating a quick and bulky back line, it was Mercier kicking us to death with a series of booming long range clearances. Paramore at eight, playing for the injured Forrester, and Fanolua had cracking first halves as well. Glaws seem to have plenty of strength in depth up front. The soon-to-return Vickery was hardly missed.

The opening skirmishes were punctuated by a nasty injury to Mel Deane. Laying prostrate on the ground for a few minutes after an apparently innocuous collision, the speed the medical staff surrounded him made a few hearts sink, but as they only had a few metres to run they were probably just being enthusiastic. He eventually got to his feet with plenty of claret on view from a head wound near his hairline, what ever one of those is! It turns out it looked a lot worse than it was and a couple of stitches was enough, although he took no further part in the game. He was replaced by Bill Satala who had a curate’s egg of a game. A couple of scrunching tackles, a bit of illegal play denied him a well earned try, but he also missed his man a couple of times.

Billy Fulton was having problems with the setting of the scrums and several times he and Vos spoke to the referee, a certain Mr S Lander. Soon after Mel’s departure Glaws scored. Paul weaved through for Mercier to convert. A second soon followed with a typical Glaws move: quick possession and the ball moved across the field with plenty of soft hands leaving Jake Boer on the overlap to score. Again Ludo converted to make it 14-0.

Perhaps at this point Glaws took their foot off the gas, Quins came back. Pressure from a ruck near Glaws line lead to a handling offence and Paul Burke duly converted the penalty, 14-3. A good move on the left, the ball worked across from Greenwood to Satala; with full back Delport slightly out of position, Bill’s kick and chase should have led to try, but it didn’t. He was held back illegally, penalty given but no yellow card. Paul Burke’s kick hardly seemed recompense. 14-6. A couple of other penalties soon followed, most out of range because of the wind. Right on half time Burke got a closer chance but his kick rattled the wood work. Half time 14-6.

Well into the second half the problems at the scrums came to a head. Glaws had pushed too early again, Fulton delayed the put in for the ref to reset, but he didn’t - he penalised Quins for delaying. Lander had a curious game around the scrum, Billy was also penalised for feeding, but the crowd got him that one. His put ins and Gomarsall’s, were no different all afternoon.

Ace Tiatia had a cracking game. Probably our best player on the pitch, just ahead of Tani Fuga and both second rows, Simon Miall and Bill Davison. Davison got through heaps of work and our lineout functioned quite well considering that ace poacher Alex Codling was missing.

Lineout functioned well (Will Warner)

A crunching tackle from Ace stopped Boer in his tracks as the try line beckoned. Replacements started to come on at this point, by the end of the afternoon both sides had used their entire benches. Is this a record?

Quins were denied a try with Gollings through. Lander pulled him back ruling a forward pass. He was playing advantage at the time so Quins got a penalty after Glaws not retreating ten from the tap and go. It wasn’t the only time we were denied a score as Roy Winters waltzed through on the blind side only to be called back for an earlier infringement. Quins kept up the pressure and Greenwood’s pass freed Nathan Williams on the right, with a man outside him a try should have come, but again it didn’t with the pass never getting there. Eventually Ben Gollings, who had an excellent game, released Tani to sprint in to score. Burke missed the conversion 26-11.

The last 15 minutes were punctuated by several injuries and many stoppages. Ludo was stretchered off, Fulton left the field clutching his arm (not sure of the extent of the damage) others followed. Luger had an odd game, his body language gave everybody the impression he wanted to be anywhere except where he was. He was replaced by ex-Glaws lad Rob Jewell, who was given few chances to strut his stuff. Will Greenwood also left before the end, he had a big game, all effort and endeavour, but to be replaced by Luke Sherriff? So whilst it wasn’t in the class of having Judith Chalmers playing at 8, still, Luke can at least say he’s played at 12.

Towards the end Henry Paul converted a penalty to end the scoring the 29-11. A jubilant crowd invasion at the end warmly greeted the Glaws side. After seven months they are top of the pile, but curiously no trophy yet. They thoroughly deserve it, they are the best side at the moment, and by a considerable way.

What can Quins take from this game? Well, shed no tears - we weren’t outclassed and the gradual improvement from the last couple of months continued. Perhaps we still lack a little depth in the squad. They will need to move the ball quicker to exploit the ball stealing talents that exist in the pack. The intensity of the away performances still doesn’t match the ones at The Stoop.

Evs commented that because of the playoffs, our last three games aren’t dead, there’s still plenty to play for. When questioned about giving others in the squad a game he replied “I never give cheap appearances”. He confirmed Keith Wood won’t play again for us, but little else was said of significance.

Kingsholm is a curious place. They squeeze masses into the ground. They have great support, the noise from the Shed is pretty impressive. But there are so few seats at the ground and access isn’t that great either in or out. The fans we met were great, some assisted me with my notes! Others in the pub afterwards seemed to have their feet on the ground and were enjoying the moment. So congratulations must go to Gloucester.

We will probably need to get a few points to be sure of the play offs, but who knows?