Harlequin Amateurs beat Old Habadashers

By Hillary Carr
November 12 2003

On the back of a first league victory against against Old Grammarian last week, the Amateurs took the field with great gusto and enthusiasm in breezy conditions all set to repeat the previous week’s performance of superiority up front in the forwards and running the ball wide to the backs.

The principle was fine, but what was put in to practice was rather less polished. Too many dropped passes, moves developed on the training field going awry when faced with a defence…all lead to a really hard grind at the office to carve out our second victory.

True, the forwards were commanding in the set scrum, constantly pushing the OH pack backwards at speed to win the ball against the head. The lineouts were mostly dependable, which meant that OH had to resort constantly to a shortened line-out tactic to win any ball.

But when we won the possession, the back line wasn’t taking the ball at sufficient speed to worry the opposition and with the lack of handling skills it looked as though it was going to be difficult to convert pressure into points.

OH took the lead in the 15th minute with a penalty (0-3), followed by an immediate opportunity to reply to the Amateurs which Webster missed from just right of the posts…a guaranteed 3 points on any other day.

It wasn’t until just shy of the half time whistle the Amateurs set up a powerful drive on the
OH right flank. A series of well controlled phases of rucking on the OH line saw the Amateurs eventually set up the ball midfield for Webster to dart inside and score a try by the posts. The conversion was missed in the same manner as the penalty. 5-3 to Quins at half-time.

The second half continued in the same vein until Appah scored the Amateurs’ second try, converted, midway through the half; this time the conversion was good (12-3).

Webster was then replaced at fly half after a late tackle took him out of the game.

This was then followed by a moment when time and players appeared to be frozen to the spot as Coyle took off from a ruck midfield and hurtled down the blind side unopposed, cutting back inside to link with Richards who offloaded to Thompson to dive over the line. The try was converted to leave the Amateurs a comfortable 19-3 ahead.

Too comfortable in fact, because the Quins eased off and allowed OH to score two relatively soft tries, one of which was converted, to suddenly find themselves only leading by a 4 point margin. Quins then had to control possession and run the clock down to the final whistle.

Still… a win is a win even if you don’t play well… just ask any England coach!

Final score: Harlequins Amateurs 19 Old Habadashers 15