une bonne journée au bureau

Solid (AH)
By Greg_P
January 18 2004

Quins recent run of good form continued when a much changed side from the first leg won an ultimately emphatic and stylish victory at the Stoop by 36 – 17 against Montauban in the second leg of the Parker Pen Challenge Cup. In professional terms it was a good day at the office.

Potentially the match could have been up there with kissing your sister in the excitement stakes (or worse a re-run of Caerphilly) but in overcoming blustery conditions, dogged opponents and a pedantic referee, Quins were good value for a 5 to 2 try margin.

The French coach signalled his intentions post-match in France when, in true gaffer speak, he confirmed that the margin of defeat allowed his team to concentrate on the struggle against relegation. Whilst excuses are a universal language, and, as reassuring as it is to see gaffer-speak cross the channel, in the interests of European harmony, French rugby will be all the poorer if it transpires that “les lads ont donnees cent dix pour cent” is the new coaching philosophy over the Channel.

As it happened, Montauban Tarn Garonne, to give them their splendid name in full (you cannot manufacture history, can you Sharks, Falcons and Titans?) gave it a good go, and were prepared to mix it up front and run it from everywhere. With last week’s weather not helping it could have been the Somme but, full credit to the ground staff, it was more “some fine day” and the surface helped foster a good open game.

Quins kicked off with the advantage of the wind and after 6 minutes Burkey knocked over a monster as if he had his eyes closed. Montauban soon levelled it and had the better of the first quarter spending most of it in Quins 22 using their big pack to drive the ball up the middle. Quins defence was good, in particular a massive hit from Mike Worsley on Cedric Bergez. Come 20 minutes Burkey started to use the wind and get the ball behind Montauban backs. Following a missed clearance, Duffy, who put in a sublime afternoon’s work, ran it back via Matt Moore. The ball was quickly recycled to Burkey who, ignoring an overlap the size of the East Stand Bar queue, cut through the French pack and found Hayter. Despite a parachute roll with double pike the lad still crossed the line for the first try. Burkey did the bizz with the boot.

Rudzki Collects (Andy Hancock)

The same pattern of Quins pressure led to another duff clearance to Duffy who again picked a great line back at Montauban. He found Matt Moore (presumably someone gave him a map of how to get to the Stoop on Saturday morning) who hit the gas magnificently and left the cover dead. Burkey shelled another pea and it was 17 – 3.

Full credit to Montauban who came back straight from the restart. The Gallic version of a thing of beauty (a rolling maul) rumbled over in the north west corner, and the talloneur (hooker), complete with spidery tattoo on his thigh, David Roumieu (my mom from Montauban) claimed the score. Benoit Albert knocked over the conversion with style.

The half was played out in an open fashion with training ground moves coming to the fore. Burkey chipped for his winger who happened to be Luke Sherriff but Montauban ran it back from in goal looping the loop twice and it all ended up being knocked on over Quins try line – ripping stuff. If not the “try from the end of the earth” it was a still “ almost a try from St Margarets”.

Ouch (Andy Hancock)

The second half began in the same open exciting vein with Quins camped in the Montauban 22. Duffy for the third time fielded a poor clearance and ran back. Matty Moore more bounced through his Lomuesqe (that’s French for bleedin’ big) opposite number, linking with the sticky handed Dippy, and Roy Winters (what a great guy to get on the score sheet) finished off the top drawer move. Burkey did the inevitable, 24 – 10.

Again following a period of sustained pressure, Quins opted for a scrum (didn’t they do well). Bemand took the ball away in hand at pace, leaving a gap behind into which Matty Moore sped for try number 2, with the cover still gasping at Bemand’s inside pass. This time Burkey did shut his eyes and the result was the same – 31 –10 and au revoir.

Between 57 and 61 minutes rugby took second place to “Check point Charlie” where about seven Russians and other east Europeans were exchanged for about the same number of Frenchmen under the watchful eye of Signor Fussy. Quins too rang the changes and the game disappeared from view for a while.

Quins continued to catch the eye with good attacking (stand up Chris Bell), but on 25 minutes Duffy picked a brilliant line only to be “clothes lined” by a defender; the carte jaune put in an appearance and popped up with some regularity after that. It all ended with the piano movers rumbling into the north west corner for Ben Willis to stroll through some awol defenders for a final score for Quins. Duffy missed for the first time in the match on 74 minutes.

The remainder of the game took on a slightly surreal air. Evs decided it was in the bag when Deane came off and Sherriff went into the centre. After an outbreak of argy bargy, Bell and a French prop went for an early shower. It was more “sac a main” (handbags!) than a re-run of Agincourt but Signor Fussy thought otherwise.

Montauban Melee (Andy Hancock)

This lead to uncontested scrums and a Quins centre pairing of, so far as I could tell, Luke Sherriff and Lord Lucan. I reckon Lord Lucan shaded it, but in fairness to Sherriff he put in one bullocking run up the middle.

However, Montauban ran in a deserved consolation through the middle where pace was a little lacking. It was converted and the score stood at 36-17.

Over and out………not quite, as Signor Fussy showed that the Spreadbury correspondence course (“Time – it’s a flexible concept”) had been euros well spent and the training session rattled on but refereed as strictly as the world cup final. Just as Quins threatened to cut loose yet again time was called.

Mark Evans was, understandably, a happy man at the post match press conference. Sporting a “Big” Ron Atkinson camel hair coat he waxed lyrical about the joy of having selection issues at last. Players were now competing for places and it was coming through in the performances. For the first time he had a squad that was playing rather than a team – good news. He felt next week’s match was one of the biggest of the season and that the cup winner would come from this half of the draw.

The French coach admitted that his team had kicked badly, giving Quins the chance to run it back at them. He was mightily impressed with Quins strength, speed and agility and felt that they were top four material in each of the two French pools. I suggested that the ref had been less kind to Montauban than Quins but he was good enough to admit that they were under pressure and it was easy for refs to penalise teams under that degree of pressure. I wished him “bonne chance” for the struggle against relegation and he countered with a grim “We’ll need it!”.