Thirteen Point Lead In Zurich A Final

By AlanQuin
April 13 2004

A convincing win by 28 – 15 over Northampton Wanderers gives Quins a substantial advantage when they go to Franklins Gardens for the second leg of the Zurich A League Final.

It should, of course have been an even greater margin. The Northampton line was crossed three more times but twice the ball was held up and once knocked on as the try was about to be scored. There were also other chances that did not come to fruition.

Both teams started the match with clear determination to dominate their opponents and played with great pace. Early pressure just denied Tom Williams a try as an errant Northampton boot just prodded the ball away from his hands and into touch. Turnovers were rife and handling errors and loss of the ball in the tackle affected both teams although Quins’ pressure kept the play mostly in Saints’ territory.

A penalty awarded to Northampton after seven minutes missed its target and a succession of penalties to Quins led to three successive turnovers. Despite these setbacks Quins continued to press and excellent combination between forwards and backs saw the first try after 17 minutes when Bill Davison went over for the try and Jarvis added the conversion to give Quins the lead 7 – 0.

Northampton came back strongly, winning the restart and threatening to penetrate the defence but a penalty against them for not releasing the ball after the tackle relieved the pressure.

A series of good breaks, first by Bemand and then by Barratt failed to penetrate as the ball was lost in the tackle and possession turned over. Similar failures by Northampton denied them any penetration. It was not until just before the half-hour that Northampton scored when a penalty kicked by Russell from 38 metres brought them three points.

Again Quins ran at Northampton and a particularly fine run by Cracknell was stopped a metre short of the line. Again a knock-on brought the attack to an end. A minute or so later Williams was held up over the line, but from the resulting scrum the ball was lost again.

Then a penalty on the Northampton 10 metre line was kicked to touch in the left hand corner and from the resulting lineout a rolling maul tied in the opposing forwards and a good pass on the short side saw Rob Jewell cross for the second try. The conversion was missed, but Quins led 12 – 3. There was time still for one superb break by Tom Williams that threatened to go all the way to the posts, but he threw a long pass to his left when his main support was on his right and the defence was able to counter.

Harlequins started the second half at pace and exerting considerable pressure which ended when Jarvis took the wrong option of an attempted drop goal rather too soon, when continuing to take the ball through the phases might have brought another score. He made amends with a well taken penalty kick after five minutes. 15 – 3.

Northampton came straight back and eventually gained a lineout on the Quins 5 metre line. However they lost the lineout but were awarded a scrum for an offence in the lineout. In the resulting pile-up of bodies, with the touch judge signalling to the referee and before the tangle of players on the floor were able to discover what was happening, a penalty to Northampton allowed Howard a quick tap and dive over the line for a Northampton try. The conversion was missed but the gap between the sides was narrowed to 15 – 8.

A minor fracas erupted which looked as though the referee would be taking out his coloured cards, but only resulted in a talking to both captains and a penalty to Northampton. But from the resulting touch, the ball was adjudged to be not straight on the throw and Quins broke out in a fine attack by Horstmann, supported by Bell and Williams. The ball eventually went to the right where James Hayter crossed the line but knocked on as he was tackled as he went to touch down for the score.

Quins continued to attack and with the match entering its last quarter determined attacking saw Luke Sherriff cross for the third try. Jarvis narrowly missed the conversion. 20 – 8.

There was some very fine play by the fast running Quins backs and although there were handling errors, generally the quality of their handling and passing was superb. A fine attack by Jarvis was passed to Bell whose grubber kick through was almost impossibly seized by Andy Reay before the defence managed to prevent his further progress to the Northampton line. The ball was recycled and a superb cross-field kick by Bell found Henry Barratt whose excellent catch meant that he had only to touch down. Jarvis, who was not having a good night with the boot missed the conversion from the touchline. 25 – 8.

Quins pressure continued and a fine run by Ceri Jones took play back into the Northampton half but a knock on in the tackle ended that sortie. Shortly after, however, a penalty for offside saw Jarvis add to the score. 28 – 8.

With only nine minutes remaining on the clock, receiving the ball from a scrum, the Northampton centre, Andy Vilk ran thirty metres, straight through the Quins defence, with not a single attempt to tackle him and scored under the posts. The conversion by Russell reduced Quins’ lead to 28 – 15.

After the game, Mark Evans, clearly in jovial mood, commented on the high quality of the game and praised the great skill in passing and handling which Quins had shown. He had no doubt that we could win the tie. Luke Sherriff, who has captained the team excellently throughout the season, expressed his satisfaction with the result although rather disappointed that they had not taken all their chances and put the result of the tie beyond doubt.

So Quins look to be set to win the Zurich A League championship and the second leg at Franklins Gardens on Tuesday 27th April at 7.45 p.m. will be a test of their nerve and ability.



TEAMS

HARLEQUINS: 15 Tom Williams (Brown 70), 14 Rob Jewell, 13 Chris Bell, 12 Andy Reay,
11 Henry Barratt, 10 Adrian Jarvis, 9 Scott Bemand, 1 Ceri Jones, 2 James Hayter,
3 Laurent Gomez, 4 Karl Rudzki, 5 Bill Davison, 6, Chris Cracknell (Guest 70), 7 Luke Sherriff (Capt.) 8. Kai Horstmann.
Replacements: 16 Cameron Dott, 17 Tom Muggridge, 18 Tom Guest, 19 Gavin Hart, 20 Ben Willis, 21 Sean Crowley, 22 Mike Brown.

NORTHAMPTON WANDERERS: 15 Ben Patston, 14 Oriol Ripol, 13 Ed Binham, 12 Andy Vilk, 11 James Brooks, 10 Ben Russell, 9 John Howard (Capt.), 1 Chris Budgen, 2 Matt Miles, 3 Tevita Taumoepeau, 4 Ed O’Donoughue, 5 John Phillips,
6. Brett McNammee, 7 Kort Schubert, 8 Mark Soden
Replacements: 16. Brett Sturgess, 17. James Ross, 18. Grant Seely, 19. James Ball, 20. Ben Jones, 21. Chris Hyndman, 22. John Clarke