Not much of a Match – not much of a Match report

Good to be back?
By Jeremy O'Gorman
February 26 2008

It started off quite well – the late kick-off on Sunday was not a bad thing – Roast Lamb eaten not waiting for my return and no traffic to compete with in Watford town centre. Then reality hit in – Jackson and Ryder were not longer in the 22; Ross and Fullerton came in their place.

I was also looking forward to seeing how good Care was – I’ve never seen him in the flesh before and wanted to know if he was as good as they say he is; unfortunately, I was not disappointed. Quins seem to have sorted out the problems of an ineffective fly-half; bypass him entirely.

The match started well enough, a good pick and drive from a tap penalty led to Quins not rolling away; a simple penalty resulted in 3 points from Ross. Sarries continued to dominate the play with a number of driving runs, but there was always a knock-on or a forward pass to ruin it. For a while it looked only a question of time before Sarries would score, but it was not to be; a turnover and Quins made great progress carving through the defence at will, then winning a penalty; 3-3.

Then Care took us apart; firstly with a move straight off the training ground. The line-out split with a hole in the middle; the ball was tapped into the hole, Care collected the tap and ran towards the line. Haughton managed to get to him, but an offload to Robshaw allowed him to run in unopposed. Sarries did come back with their best move of the match; several phases of play pulled the ball off to the right and when it came back to Ross he put in a good kick to Jack on the left touchline. He towered above the defence and offloaded to Chesney at pace. A try seemed certain, but good Quins defence just managed to keep Jack out on the return pass. It did go to the TV replay, but there was no doubt Jack was in touch. Then the Leonelli incident; Quins were running the ball well, when Leonelli took a blow to the head and was in a bad way. The physio came on and was trying to drag him off; he didn’t want to go. The play should have really been stopped at that point as he was in a bad way, but Spreaders allowed it to continue. With the back two not sure where to run, Care took full advantage with a long kick to Monye, who ran in under the posts.

Realistically, that was the end of the match as no more points were scored. Mostly for two reasons; Quins were happy to try to sit on the lead and Sarries never looked like scoring. Scabs came on to replace the injured Leonelli and looked sharp but he never got the ball passed to him. The game sort of progressed like this:

Sarries forwards win the ball from a lineout in their own half
They run the ball forward but never in a way that looks like they are going to break free. The breakdown ball is slow and ponderous and even when it gets to the midfield ball and man arrive together
Eventually there is a knock-on or a turnover and the ball is run or kicked back to the Sarries 22
Even if Sarries kick it – the Quins back 3 return it with interest

Ross did have two long penalty attempts but missed them both. Depressingly, not even a bonus point

A few players played well – Lloyd, Census and Jack in the forwards seemed to put themselves about, as did Hugh when he came on. Haughton had a good game, Scabs looked sharp and I felt sorry for Powell who had a lot of slow ball ( most of which was delivered behind him so he had to slow to take it)

I wanted to leave with about 10 minutes to go, but had to wait until the end to ensure I missed nothing. My apologies that the report is as sluggish as the teams performance on Sunday. Looking at the table I see that if Wasps, Irish and Quins win their game in hand – we will be in 8^th – oh joy

Scoring sequence: 8 min 3-0 Pen. Ross. 18 min 3-3 Pen Jarvis. 25 min 3-8 Try Robshaw. 31 min 3-13 Try Monyne. 32 min 3-15 Conv Jarvis. 50 min 6-15 Pen Ross.

Saracens: B Russell (E Thrower 80); R Haughton, R Penney, A Powell, F Leonelli (D Scarbrough 35); G Ross, N de Kock (capt, A Dickens 80 ); N Lloyd, F Ongaro (A Kyriacou 64), C Johnston (T Mercey 80), C Jack, I Fullarton (H Vyvyan 61), K Chesney (B Skirving 61), R Hill, P Gustard.
Pens: Ross (2).
Harlequins: M Brown; T Williams, H Luscombe (D W Barry 79), T Masson, U Monye; A Jarvis (C Malone 63), D Care; C Jones, T Fuga, M Ross, J Percival, N Spanghero (G Robson 63), C Robshaw, W Skinner, T Guest (C Hala'ufia 56).
Tries: Robshaw, Monye.
Con: Jarvis.
Pen: Jarvis.
Sin-bin: Hala'ufia 77.
Referee: T Spreadbury.
Att: 6,553.

Picture Credit: Philfez.

Not much of a Match – not much of a Match report

Posted by: TheSaracens.com (IP Logged)

Date: 26/02/2008 07:57

Not much of a Match – not much of a Match report