Quins Return To Earth: Earth Titans 7-22 Quins

By Harley Quin
October 30 2005

After the champagne rugby in the sun last Saturday, this game was in very sharp contrast. On a windy, cold afternoon on a sloping pitch (across, not end to end) against a highly committed Rotherham team, this was a dour contest of largely trench warfare between the forwards.

In winning the game in that fashion, Quins showed that they can adapt their style of play to suit the circumstances in which they find themselves and still emerge victorious.

Although they were in control of the game from the first five minutes and never really looked like being overtaken during the rest of the game, Quins certainly were forced to compete hard by the home team and knew they had been in a real contest at the final whistle.

The primary attacking weapon of choice all afternoon was a high, hanging kick into the opposition 22, followed by a forward battle in the ensuing rucks and mauls. To highlight this, it took Rotherham over 20 minutes to get into our 22 with ball in hand and by my reckoning, Ugo’s first run came on 70 minutes!

One key area of dominance was once again the lineout, where Simon Miall had another outstanding game. We kept our own ball and stole a lot of theirs, critically when Miall nicked one five metres from the Quins’ line in the first half, following a penalty.

The game started brightly enough. After a couple of minutes Simon Keogh tried a kick and chase only to be flattened by Donald, a Rotherham flanker. The ball landed 42 metres from the home line, giving Andrew Mehrtens the chance to open the scoring. 3 -0 Quins.

This was quickly followed by a dazzling run by Gavin Duffy – who had a strong game and was at the heart of most of our attacking back play all afternoon. With the referee playing a second penalty advantage following a scrum on the left deep in the Rotherham 22, Steve So’oialo took a quick tap and moved the ball down the line. Tosh Masson chose a great line of attack and crashed over. Mehrtens, with the wind howling, missed the kick. 8 – 0 Quins.

Mel Deane then got in on the act. Breaking from halfway, he was finally hauled down in the shadow of the posts. As Quins recycled the ball Mehrtens put in a cross kick for Ugo, lurking out on the touchline, which just eluded him with the line wide open.

Unfortunately, Mel was soon in the wars again. He got a knee on the head making a tackle and was replaced by Mike Brown after just 28 minutes. (After the game he confirmed that it was Luke Sherriff that caught him in the eye last week.)

Much of the play was error filled from both sides for the balance of the first half and, apart from a bit of a brawl following a scrum, that was that. Half time and an eight point lead.

Within seconds of the restart Chris Robshaw came on as a blood replacement for Luke Sherriff, who had given his best display so far this season.

Ironically, in what was Rotherham’s best period of the match just after the break, Quins took further control. On 50 minutes, AM caught a clearance kick on his own 22 and launched a counter attack. Coming in off his wing at pace, Simon Keogh burst through, ran over 40 metres and was stopped only yards short of the line. The cavalry duly arrived and Nick Easter had a relatively simple chance to score. KEEEEEEEEEEOGH chanted the travelling faithful. Once again Mehrtens landed a difficult kick (any kick was difficult on the day) to make it a three score game. 15 – 0 Quins.

However, as previously noted, Rotherham were playing hard. Two quick penalties should have helped Roth on to the score sheet, but a forward pass nullified the effort. Then scrum half Bedford broke and should have set up his “shoulder runner” to score. 

At this point Kevin Burke replaced Jim Evans, just before Rotherham finally made their pressure pay. Following a back move after a lineout, Mitchell evaded Tosh Masson’s tackle (a shame because he had a great game defensively apart from that) and strolled in under the posts 15 – 7 Quins.

Back came the home side again. Another penalty, from just outside the 40 was just wide right from Strauss as the home side looked to reduce the lead to just 5 points. The miss seemed to kill the resistance to a degree and Quins reasserted their hold on the game. 

With 15 minutes to go Tani Fuga and Ricky Nebbett were replaced by the welcome return to first team action of James Hayter and Lorne Ward. 

Then, another foray into home territory saw Mehrtens drill a penalty into the corner. From there Miall (who else) grabbed the lineout ball and the forwards chugged to the line. Rotherham held at the first time of asking, but Nick Easter emerged from the resultant second phase pile with ball in hand after scoring his second try of the afternoon. Merhts added the extras. 22- 7 Quins. 

The bench moves were completed with Ian Vass replacing Steve So’oialo and Tom Williams on for Ugo Monye. 

From there it was just a case of whether Quins could claim the bonus point. It was not to be. Despite launching several attacks during an extended injury time the fourth try evaded them. Mike Brown did go over in the corner with the final play of the game, but the pass was way forward. 

Although he had targeted the bonus point, Dean Richards was happy with the win and the heart and commitment shown by the team noting that “It’s a difficult place to come. Other sides will come here in the Winter and if its raining and horrible weather then they are going to be lucky to come away with a win at all.” 

Andre paid credit to Rotherham and recognised that “It was hard work out there…they came out firing…four points we had to work hard for.”

Merhts saw it “As a good battle. We know we are in for a tough 80 minutes every week and we welcome that. To come away from a place like this with a win is fantastic. We were playing 15 guys who are just committed and passionate and that’s just great, that’s good for footy”

An interested bystander was Justin Marshall of Leeds. It was the first time he had seen AM in action in England. He enjoyed it and assured me that “It certainly wasn’t a recognisance trip for the future! It’s a different type of game to what we are used to playing” he said. “(In ND1) it’s a lot more of a physical game. The ball is a lot more contested and sometimes a lot slower. In NZ its make contact and move, make contact and move.”

It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win and four more points towards a return to the Premiership. All in all a good return to Earth for ‘Los Galacticos’ of ND1.

Final Score: 7-22

NEC Harlequins
Ceri Jones, Tani Fuga, Ricky Nebbett, Jim Evans, Simon Miall, Andre Vos, Luke Sherriff, Nick Easter, Steve So’oialo, Andrew Mehrtens, Ugo Monye, Mel Deane, Tajiv Masson, Simon Keogh, Gavin Duffy.
Replacements: James Hayter, Lorne Ward, Kevin Burke, Christopher Robshaw, Ian Vass, Mike Brown, Tom Williams
Scorers
Tries: Masson, Easter (2); Penalty: Mehrtens; Conversions: Easter (2)

Earth Titans
15 Carter, 14 Strettle, 13 Mitchell, 12, Blackett (Capt.), 11 Claasens, 10 WP Strauss (Whitehead 64), 9 Bedford, 1 Golding (Carey 71), 2 Conroy (Hanna 71), 3 Rawson (Pienaar 75), 4 Bornman, 5 McGowan (McComb 75), 6 Donald, 7 Cochrane (Fourie 64), 8 Hala’ufia.
Replacements: 16 Jonker, 17 Carey, 18 Fourie, 19 Whitehead, 20 Hanna, 21 Pienaar 22 McComb
Scorers
Try: Mitchell; Conversion: WP Strauss

Referee: Bruce Robertson
Touch judges: Tim Wigglesworth, Steve Makinson

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Harlequin Wristband Award

After the game Andre Vos presented Gummychesterquin with the inaugural Harlequin Wristband Award for ‘Services to Quins fans’. In addition to the peer recognition and the certificate, the award carries a prize of two Carvery tickets at a Quins home game of his choice. I am sure the 200 or so people who live and die the away games with the aid of his splendid live reports will welcome and endorse the award. Babs did ask me to point out that, despite winning the Carvery prize, everybody still owe GCQ a pint!