Irish unlocked by Keys

In spite of the title, I will try to avoid talking about the referees anymore than usual.

Apprehension was the feeling that came across strongest on the message board in the build up to the game. Quins have the same game plan as us, they just do it better unfortunately. There was always the potential to ship an unhealthy amount of points given our love of slacking off for periods, but this Quins line up was one that could be got at. New combinations and a few players missing meant Quins couldn’t necessarily rely on the usual guys pulling the strings. Let’s forget about what Quins can do…..let the game begin.

Early stages Quins kept possession in our 22 and headed for the corner with numbers in their favour. Andre the giant seemed like he was a shoe in to slide over the first score inside five minutes, but Loader wasn’t having it. He tracked the ball across the field and made one of the best one on one hits I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t the biggest, it was ugly, but it worked. Quins 12 found himself turned around and leaning back to score, spilling the ball in the process.

A let off? No, just the spark we needed. Scrum was solid, we make the exit. We build phases and score two tries in quick succession. Our big 8 barrels over Tommy Allen before Ben Donnell pretends to drop the ball leaving the quins defender flat footed and gets himself over the whitewash. Jackson kicks both conversions, we’re in dreamland. In amongst this, Simmons has been yellow carded for head contact in the tackle.

Heading towards half time, most of us are thinking, we should be up by even more. We were defending well, passing was good, but in true Irish style of late, we weren’t clinical enough for the time we spent in the Quins 22. Fourteen points up at the break.

I remember saying the same thing over and over when watching Irish. If we can get through the first ten minutes of the second half, we can push on.

We were a different team after half time. Back in our shells, making bad decisions and conceding early. Dombrandt brings Quins back in to it. We don’t get through the ten minutes I asked for before we’re back down to 14. Donnell is sent off the a reckless and needless high shot. So much good work now undone in six minutes.

Where do we go from here? What's the plan for the whole half of rugby down to 14? We calm down and play off a scrum around halfway. A wrap around move allows Stokes to feed OHC who brushes off David and crashes over in the corner. What a response!

Is it an indication of Donnells form that him being off didn’t affect us in open play, set pieces were a different problem. We were now on the wrong side of the ref and penalties were racking up. Quins were camped in our 22 for what seemed like a solid 20 minutes. Tommy Allen did the damage…twice. Even with a man down, all the pressure Quins put on us was down to our own mistakes.

Lovejoy being used a pivot in midfield to pass the ball behind, it cost us a try against Bath and it cost us possession and territory again today. We never learn. We stemmed the tide for long enough to earn a penalty that pushed us ahead with ten to go.

This would be a hell of a long ten minutes, we were both down a man but we were now on the wrong side of the penalty count. We coped for 8 of those minutes. Then….well you know what happened next. Yet another poor attempt at a clearance kick meant the ball bounced up allowing VanRensburg to claim it, Charlie Matthews made a last ditch attempt but all he could manage was to clip our man and send him to the floor. Play on Keys tells everyone. In the meantime he is asking the TMO to check the challenge.

Desperate to balance out what she felt was an injustice it in the first half, TMO says play on. Benhard, after some medical treatment actually runs back on and creates the problem which gifts Quins the penalty. Ref stops play to get Benhard off, scrum to restart, scrum goes down, penalty Quins. Here we go… Quins take the lineout and our maul defence is non existent. We fall apart and Quins go over for the win. Sickening!!

As bad as that last minute call was by the TMO, I still place the blame on ourselves for that. Two weeks in a row, we’ve been the better side yet we walk away with a loss. I honestly cannot read anymore of the messages about being "so close" and us playing "such good rugby". It’s simply not true. Our brand has turned in to "All fur coat and no knickers".

We made so many errors at crucial times. Stokes, Englefield, Creevy, Jackson and Powell all put in awful kicks under no pressure to gift Quins free ball. That’s not opinion, it’s fact. That’s a minimum of 5 turnovers just from kicks alone! Quins didn’t have to do anything to win that ball back. We gave it to them.

Too many times, players are letting team mates down by failing to do the basic things right. It honestly seems like no one in that squad can kick a ball out of their hand in a positive manner. At what point do even the most green tinted supporters start to ask, are some of our players actually as good as we think they are? They can’t be, when the same problem keeps happening, it’s not bad luck, it’s bad play, a lack of skill.

Pretty tries can only gloss over it for so long. Leadership is non existent, Paddy is not a leader, yet he seems to be our captain now. He’s so passive it’s infuriating. It’s not just him, Coleman is the only effective match day captain I’ve seen. When Benhard got hit, we should have created such a scene that the ref would have had no choice but to stop. Quins would have done it, Sarries and other teams with a right match day mentality. Marler even stopped to talk to the ref in play after getting hit by Donnell and point it out. We are the least streetwise team in the league.

I will point out two parts of the game that highlight how clueless we’re becoming. Creevy wrongly assumed we were playing advantage and he kicked the ball and it went straight out. What was the plan? Even if it stayed in, no one was chasing, it was a waste of a free play even if it didn’t go out. Result: another turnover. Englefield, after winning a free kick to ease the pressure in Quins 22, he nonchalantly kicks the ball to himself, actually restarting the game. He realises his mistake and is rushed into a poor clearance, Quins get another attacking platform. Both scenarios are moronic. You can’t do that and expect to win games.

People treat Englefield like he’s fresh off the school bus, he’s 23. Chapman, the 9 for Glaws on the Friday was superb and central to so much of what they did right. Same age as Englefield but ten times the intensity and on field intelligence. If we went bust in the morning, White is the only scrum half who might gather some interest.

For such a key position, ours offer nothing which puts so much pressure on Paddy who has to run the show himself. We see in other teams the importance of the 9/10 axis. Saints dismantled Bris, Smith on debut at ten. He had a stormer as did Mitchell. We lack real rugby intelligence in one of the most important positions on the pitch. That’s why things aren’t changing, we don’t have the right guys to make it click properly. Put Robson or Spencer in our lineup and watch us fly. For anyone saying we’re doing better or improving, the stats say we’re 10 points worse off in the table, and 55 points worse off on points difference.

I hate to type in such a way. We have so much raw talent but sprinkled around it are too many guys who aren’t at the level, the losses prove it. We can’t recruit any Wasps or Wuss lads because we’ve kept too many hangers on around who haven’t stepped up and they soaked up the cash even though they never threaten to play a prem game.

Apologies to anyone who doesn’t agree, but the evidence is in front of us. Our opposition don’t play well but always put themselves in a position to win, we play well but always put ourselves in a position to lose. If we fall away, our talent will start to walk away.

Shout to Loader in particular who has been phenomenal since returning. Basham tackled more than any other player this weekend. Simmons is a hero.

If some of our other lads had the aggression and smarts of Benhard, we’d win the league. He’s a class act but he’s carrying us.