Rock Bottom

By kwin
October 4 2004

After five games, Quins lie five points adrift at the bottom of the ZP, following a comprehensive defeat by Worcester. Three weeks ago I asked: is this a bad spell or are we having a crisis? After the game on Saturday, Evans provided the answer: "It's a crisis. It's the worst I've faced at the club"

The game was summed up in a three minute passage of play late in the second half – 73 minutes played: Wuss chipped over our line and into touch just inside the Quins 22. Our lineout throw went safely to hand (as it did most of the time this week) but the hungry Worcester pack weren't messing about and they bullied (there's no other word for it) the Quins forwards backwards a good 7m before the maul could be properly set.

So, Dunne received the ball on the back foot, 10m further back than he's a right to expect, hoofed it and missed touch. Delport and O'Leary ran it straight back into a disorganised and disorientated Quins pack, and won a kickable penalty.

Slight pause and the Quins players lined up in defence: Dunne, James, Greenwood hands on hips, three or four forwards hands on knees. Dippy cross-legged like the jester on his shirt, seemingly only Ace – good old Ace - alert, 9.5 metres from the ball, leaning forward, straining at the leash and glowering furiously.

Worcester spurned the three easy points. Well they would. Routine kick to the corner: a thunderous stamping session from the excited crowd, Line out safely caught, rolling maul (thing of beauty ho hum), and they strolled over in the corner, fourth try and a bonus point, thank you very much and goodnight, job well done.


At Worcester they play a different tune after each try. The tune for the fourth try – if you're wondering - is "Tiger Feet", and the crowd around me enjoyed it heartily – as well they might, because they hadn't heard it for a long while, and I don't suppose they'll be hearing it very frequently again this winter. They're a proud team, and a good one, but they will find it tough in the ZP – it IS tough in the ZP, and it's not often they'll come across opposition playing as poorly as Quins did on Saturday.

But this week there was still more to come! 10 minutes later the man in the sound box hastily blew the dust off a box labelled "5" as the Worcester number 8 intercepted a casual pass, and popped up the ball from floor beautifully for one of his team-mates to collect at speed and run over for a last touchdown to make it 33-7 final score.

"Mamma, but we're all crazy, now", it was. And not inappropriate for us magenta-clad Poor Saps making our out of the cosy ground, 100 miles from home.

Crazy? £750 altogether, I reflected. That's what my family's season tickets cost this season.

The truth is, we were miles off the pace in this game, and it's hard to know where we go from here. But, before I address that question, back to the game. There were some positives: there always are. So'oialo had his best game for Quins so far: harrying Powell, passing more swiftly and kicking more accurately than previously. In the first half he showed quick reactions when an off-side looking Sanderson suddenly appeared between him and Staunton poised for an interception, and Steve neatly sidestepped and fired a long one to Greenwood. In the second half he bravely caught a nasty high ball, getting buried a split second after calling his mark. If he too often passed directly to Greenwood, missing out Staunton this was probably part of the game plan. Where he was unlucky, though, was coming across the familiar Matt Powell, playing one of the performances of his life against his old club: swift breaks, good passes, aggressive running, fine box kicks. I don't recall seeing too much of that when he played for us.

Greenwood and James looked like the beginnings of a partnership, and I remember one particular attack where they combined well together. Greenwood's looking a bit more sure-footed in general, these days, but he does seem to have picked up a worrying tendency to lose the ball in the tackle. Twice, according to my notes, the first time resulting in Worcester's second try as a surprised Wuss prop – Windo - collected the ball, drew his man and laid it off like a natural.

On the Worcester side, all the old Quins players were fired up. Captain Pat Sanderson was man of the match, and this was not just for his opening try: the first penalty-and-rolling maul, 10 minutes into the game. Captaincy seems to suit Pat: he had an assured looking game, played from the front It seemed to me he had the respect of his players and he certainly had the respect of the soft-accented, but hard nosed crowd around me. "Ye're rubbish Quins!).

Ben Gollings scurried around mighty fast – though George Harder made mincemeat of him with one contemptuous hand-off and Daren O'Leary showed he's still got some pace- and nous.

Tim Collier lived up the memories we all have of him – tussling with Miall and stamping on Ace so long after the whistle had gone that a penalty to Worcester was reversed to give Quins a fine attacking lineout in the corner. (We failed to throw it 5m).

Yes, there were moments when things looked OK – of course there were. At 14-0 down it looked a bit hairy, but when Duffy kicked a penalty to the corner, and the forwards combined to send Sherriff over for a try (Worcester not paying attention?) we were in touch. At half time it was 14-7 and though we weren't really in it, we weren't really out of it either, and it certainly didn't look lost - not from I was sitting anyway.


Mind you, where I was sitting was behind a pillar. The East Stand at Worcester is very similar to our North, and whatever anyone else says: I did find the pillars annoying – or rather one pillar in particular that blocked my view of the half that Worcester were attacking after the break (though to be fair, it hardly bothered me before half time).

Under the stand were a number of temporary bars that we could certainly copy at Quins, and Sixways was indeed the pleasant experience that I had expected – the ground is homely, the atmosphere traditional, the silence during the kicks exemplary, the crowds friendly and the only fault I could really find was the muddy track through the nature reserve on the way from the car park. (memo to Quins fans: NOT the Gucci loafers). If I were also to complain that the public address system was SO effective and loud that the Man-with-the-mike was positively deafening at half time it would probably sound churlish, so I'll pass over.


But if I was optimistic at half-time it was false optimism. In fact, looking back at my notes, we didn't deserve to be that close. Wuss had crossed the line once without scoring. They'd missed a kick, and they'd fluffed a great opportunity just before half time where a lack of composure and patience meant that two successive penalties in our 22m yielded them no points.

In the second half we were simply blown away in the forwards. When Worcester forgot themselves and span it wide, we were OK: our defence is organised, we can tackle. When they kept it close they dominated. When they counter attacked they were dangerous.

10 minutes into the second half I knew it was all over. Worcester hadn't actually scored, but it was only a matter of time. I'm not sure what exactly happened at the 50 minute mark, but in my notebook at that moment I wrote 'doomed' and drew a circle round it. And so it proved. The third try came five minutes later after a bizarre maul that separated, leaving the ball exposed, at least four players offside (I thought) Leyshon signalling 'play on' and all the forwards frozen in confusion, before a quick thinking Wuss player claimed it.

After a while Evans brought on the cavalry. Lambert and Polepoi I didn't really notice (sorry!),
but poor old Ugo came off the bench and over the next ten minutes we were reminded why he'd been left on it. He needs to work on catching, and on picking up.

Duffy got sin binned (killing thee ball I assume) and they scored while he was off. Diprose continued to practice his kicking from hand. OK it's not bad for a number eight – but why is he does he end up so often in a position to do it? Is it the game he plays? is it the game plan? is he not up with the pace? Viks – you watch him a lot: any ideas? We struggled on to a bad loss.


So where do we go from here? Our next three league games are Gloucester (a), Leicester (h) and then (after a little matter of Munster and Castres) Wasps (a). Irish just played those three and didn't win a single point. Not many teams will get much from those fixtures this season, so I don't think it's disloyal to suspect the same fate for us.

After that, there's Sarries at home, and we've got to target that for a point or four, because it's Sale (a) the following week. It's going to be a long hard October, and I don't think Matt Henjak's the answer either – So'oalio may not be the next George Gregan, but 9 is not – in my judgement – the real problem here.

What can Evans do?

Evans is in a pickle, no doubt about it. To my mind he has to do something radical, but before we can consider his options, we need to focus on, and rule out, the most foolish knee-jerk reactions on the message board:

1) First, Evans is NOT going to fix this season by resigning as coach, and he's not going to fix it by sacking JK or PT. Why? Because – who would he replace them with? The last time I looked there wasn't a whole host of unemployed 1st rate coaches looking for work. And don't say 'Jason Leonard'. Like it or not, rightly or wrongly, good hires or bad, the coaching team we've got is likely to have to last us until June, and unless you've got a good, available, experienced replacement in mind, I can't see the point of complaining about it

2) Another thing we can discard fairly quickly is: playing the reserves. On the contrary: you show me a team that's muscled its way out of a crisis, and I'll show you a team where the *experienced* players have dug deep, stood tall and shown the way. To believe otherwise is whistling in the wind. This crisis is not going to solved by the likes of Williams, Reay, Lambert and Cracknell (though they may have a role to play) – No, if we're going to avoid finishing bottom it's the likes of Vos, Greenwood, Tiatia, Diprose, Winters and James who will have to stand up to be counted. And it has to be Kingston, Turner and Evans who show them the way.

And of course Evans is also going to have to do what Rob Andrew did two seasons ago, and spend a bit of money on some South African cavalry when they become free in the new year.

But at the end of the day, unless we want to put all our eggs on Charles Jillings conjuring up some ring-fencing from the RFU, what's going to rescue this season is not sackings – but rather hard work, self-belief, determination and grit.

And a more measured attitude from some of the fans might even help.

I think we can do it.