A Fine Win In Bad Weather - Montauban (a)

By The Prof
January 13 2004

It had been raining solidly for two days and a steady drizzle was falling on the sodden pitch – the conditions were never going to be conducive to running rugby. It seems no one had told the Quins players this – they showed some fabulous handling skills and won the game scoring six tries to one.

Burke, who was returning from injury, kicked off and Montauban knocked on. Vos, playing at number eight today, picked up from the base of the resulting scrum and was tackled and Quins were awarded a penalty for not rolling away. Burke slotted the penalty from 40 yards. 0-3, 2 minutes.

A Quins lineout on the Montauban 10m line was thrown long to Vos who set up a rolling maul, the ball was passed to Burke who put in a beautiful kick to the right wing where Duffy was waiting, he leapt high and tapped the ball back to George Harder but the ball wasn’t held in the slippery conditions.

A break from deep by Gavin Duffy up the left wing was stopped short of the line but excellent recycling sent the ball to Burke who put in a grubber and Ace Tiatia scored just to the left of the posts, Burke added the extra points. 0-10, 19 minutes.

Soon after the restart a penalty was awarded to Montauban about 30m out, Vermis kicked the goal to put the home side’s first points on the board. 3-10, 21 minutes.

Duffy again countered from deep after a Montauban clearance making thirty yards up the right wing before passing inside and Burke put in a crossfield kick to Ugo Monye who sprinted in unopposed, again the conversion was successful, 3-17, 25 minutes.

Just a couple of minutes afterwards Burke put a chip over the flat Montauban defence for Ugo to chase and he sped through to touch down only for the referee to judge that he knocked the ball on rather than touching it down.

The same decision came again soon after when a Quins rolling maul crossed the line. The Montauban scrum was put under pressure and the clearance kick was sliced into touch in goal. From the 5m scrum Quins won the ball which Keogh passed to Burke who chipped the ball over the posts for Ugo to touch down. Burke, who was having on of his best games for Quins, kicked the conversion from in front of the posts. 3-24, 32 minutes.

Burke was again in action tackling back to put an end to a dangerous looking Montauban attack which charged up the left wing.

Another Montauban clearance failed to find touch and again found Duffy out by the right wing, he looked up and sent a perfectly weighted kick to the far left wing where Greenwood was waiting, he judged the bounce of the ball well and ran in in the left corner. Burke missed the difficult conversion. 3-29, 39 minutes. This was the final score of the half.

Bemand came on at scrum half at half time replacing Ugo Monye while Simon Keogh moved to the wing.

Montauban started the second half very strongly and Quins showed their trademark strong defence.

Some fantastic handling from Burke, Bemand and Greenwood looked like it would lead to a score but the slippery ball was spilled just short of the line. Quins stole the ball back and were just about to cross the line when an offside Montauban forward got in the way of a pass. A penalty was awarded but the tap penalty was adjudged to have been a ‘flying wedged’ and a penalty was awarded to the home side.

A great break and more wonderful handling by the likes of Greenwood, Tiatia, and Fuga saw the ball being swept upfield from one side of the pitch to the other and finally Deane broke through to score again Burke got the conversion. 3-36, 51 minutes.

Jason Leonard and Laurent Gomez were then pulled off by the management and Mike Worsley, playing for the first time since his back injury, and Jon Dawson came on. A couple of minutes later George Harder came off and Chris Bell came on to play on the right wing.

Montauban sent the ball left where they had a two man overlap, it looked like they were destined to score but the final pass was thrown behind the man on the wing straight into touch.

Kai Horstmann replaced Andre Vos – 62 minutes.

Some fine handling and interpassing up the middle of the pitch tore the Montauban defence to shreds but a slight forward pass (although it looked alright to my biased eye) brought the move to a halt just short of the line.

Tony Diprose and Billy Davison came on for Ace Tiatia and Karl Rudzki – 68 minutes.

Another fantastic passage of play saw a break by Burke and great hands from Bell, Fuga, Horstmann and Greenwood amongst others but it was stopped illegally and the penalty was advanced a further 10m when a Montauban player kicked the ball away. Pat Sanderson took a quick tap penalty and went over to score. Burke got the conversion, 3-43, 71 minutes.

The final score of the game came from Montauban on 76 minutes when Beyret scored in the corner, the conversion kick dipped just under the crossbar to leave the final score 8-43.

After the game the players and management all seemed very happy with the result and the performance. There were no major injury concerns, Ugo was taken off because he went over on his ankle and George was pulled off because he is recovering from a chest infection.

The team manager, Mike Scott, said that he was happy with the result and that everyone played well especially the front five who took the game to Montauban.

A Montauban spokesman said that the better team won on the night and that Quins were faster, more aggressive and more professional. He went on to say that the Parker Pen Challenge Cup wasn’t a priority for them where their problems in the domestic league is more important.


Mark Evans was happy (!) with the professional performance in such poor conditions even though it wasn’t the strongest Montauban side. We showed good defence, our lineout was good (we stole a lot of Montauban ball) and as was our offensive kicking. With Ben Willis currently dropped Evans was pleased with Simon Keogh’s performance at scrum half. With a 35 point advantage going into the home leg he can’t believe that we won’t get into the next round where we will play either Brive or Castres, we would prefer to play Brive because Castres have the stronger squad. With few people bothering the physiotherapists Quins are in good shape coming towards the business end of the season.

Laurent Gomez, Harlequins’ French prop, enjoyed the match where we played well against good opposition. He also mentioned that the conditions were poor and that pitches in England are much better.

Chris Bell was another player who mentioned the conditions and was very happy with the good way the backs executed set moves.

All of the players enjoyed the win, Andre Vos enjoyed playing at 8 and Simon Keogh is happy to play in his favoured position of scrum half especially as there is very strong competition in the form of Monye and Harder on the wings.

Overall it was an excellent display of exciting, attacking rugby, the forwards provided high quality ball, Keogh and Burke worked well together and got the backs mving well. Ugo is bound to be happy because he has now gone clear at the top of the try scoring table.

Montauban Tarn et Garonne v NEC Harlequins 8-43 (HT: 3-29).

Montauban Scores: Try: Beyret (76); Penalty: Vermis (21)
Harlequin Scores: Tries: Tiatia (19), Monye (25, 32), Greenwood (39), Deane (51), Sanderson (71); Penalty: Burke (2); Conversions: Burke (19, 25, 32, 51, 71).

Referee : M.Dickson (Scotland).

Montauban : Bondouy (Ratchkov 63), Clèdes, Beyret, Sieurac (Gordo 40), Fauré, Vermis, Garcia, Gratchev (Soldan 65), Misse, Boukanoucha (Colomé 40), Bergez (cap), Corréa (Roques 60), Véron (Martinez 33), Gaubert, Ben Bouhout (Scherrer 72).

NEC Harlequins : Duffy, Harder (Bell 55), Greenwood, Deane, Monye (Bemand 40), Burke, Keogh, Sanderson, Vos (cap) (Horstmann 62), Tiatia (Diprose 68), Winters, Rudzki (Davison 68), Gomez (Dawson 53), Fuga, Leonard (Worsley 53).

Many thanks to Montauban and their fans for making the travelling Quins fans so welcome, we hope we can return the hospitality next week.

Many thanks too to Lou Hopkins too who interviewed Gomez and the Montauban staff for this report – I couldn’t have done it without you.