End of the Line for Quins? Newcastle 33-18 Harlequins
By Harley Quin
March 5 2011
‘Must win’ is an over-worked phrase, but for Quins this really was - if they had any lingering thoughts of the play-offs. A scratch team, that committed unforced errors and was overwhelmed in the lineout in the second half, came away from the long journey north with nothing.
The first half fell a long way short of exciting, but it started really well for Quins. Having kicked off deep the resulting touch clearance gave Quins a lineout. Rory Clegg put through a wicked grubber kick into the right corner which deflected off a Falcon to give the visitors the throw in.
After about fifteen phases, which took the ball across the field and back again, Lindsay-Hague made the decisive break, feeding Brown, who sent Tom Williams in at the corner. Clegg landed the conversion from the hardest place on the pitch for a right footer. Wonderful try, wonderful kick, wonderful start. 7-0 Quins.
Newcastle’s first foray into Quins 22 was a portent of things to come. Harlequins were penalised for collapsing their own scrum and Gopperth, who put on a kicking master class all night, reduced the arrears.
The game then entered its ‘comatose’ period. Newcastle never looked like breaking Quins resolute defence as the visitors easily dealt with each attack. The game was played between the 22s and if it had been a soccer game the commentators would have called it a midfield battle.
The intensity was there, but not a lot else. Both sides knew how important a result was and each passage of play early on ended in ‘handbags’. After another collapsed scrum after 15 minutes, followed by more pushing and shoving, referee Small decided to bin Johnston from Quins and his loosehead opponent Golding from Falcons.
After 24 minutes Ceri Jones was harshly binned for knocking down a Falcons pass when retreating in an offside position. Penalty yes, card no. Gopperth ‘metronomically’ nailed a tough kick to reduce the arrears to one point.
Quins were not playing to their game plan, which was to get the ball deep into Falcon territory and press from there. They were trying, and failing, to play too much rugby in their own half with players who, quite frankly, were not up to the task.
Having missed one penalty attempt Clegg nailed another after another good passage of play from Quins. However, another unforced error at the breakdown was accepted by Gopperth, who then sent Newcastle in ahead 12-10 at the break after yet another scrum infringement by Quins. So the visitors found themselves behind in a game that they should have held a reasonable advantage.
When Clegg nailed another penalty only 3 minutes after the restart to give Quins back the lead, things appeared to be on the up. However, the second half was all about the set piece and in particular the lineout.
With only one lineout jumper in the form of Pete Browne, the visitors’ lineout came under severe pressure. They began losing their own ball at an alarming rate and attempts to find an alternative to Browne ended in more turnovers. It changed the whole context of the game. It gave the Falcons territorial advantage and massive momentum while Quins resorted to ‘sevens’ tactics to try and keep the ball alive and avoid set piece situations.
Quins having changed their entire front row after 51 minutes, the game turned on a five minute passage of play just before the hour mark. Having not conceded a try for the equivalent of three games of rugby, a missed tackle in the centre of the defence allowed Tu’ipulotu to set up fellow replacement Gray for the go ahead try.
On their next attack a decent Falcons handling move saw winger Fielden score in the corner. Fourteen points in five minutes and the game was almost up. However, Quins did not give up. A penalty with ten minutes to go set up a line out (which was won!) and as the phases moved across the field Mike Brown crashed over wide on the right. It left Clegg with a crucial, but difficult kick – which proved just beyond him. The miss left Newcastle with an 8 point lead.
It all became irrelevant with five minutes to go when Man of the Match Micky Youngs burrowed over to put the game beyond doubt and give Falcons three minutes to try and find what proved to be an elusive bonus point try.
It was all pretty grim from a Quins point of view. Yes there were injuries, yes it was a depleted side, but the self inflicted pain really was frustrating. The big challenge for the team this week is to get a functioning lineout in time for next Friday because Quins failure in that regard was instrumental in their defeat at Kingston Park.
After the game Conor O’Shea gave an honest assessment. “Our set piece didn’t function. They did a number on us, particularly in the lineout. I want to go away and take a long hard look at it. We were beaten by the better side on the night.”
Barring what he called “massive mathematical acrobatics”, he accepted that top six was the realistic target now this season in the league, together with a quest for cup silverware. The primary goal remains Heineken Cup qualification. Based on last night that seems a tough ask.
Newcastle:
15 Jeremy Manning 14 Luke Fielden
13 Luke Eves 12 James Fitzpatrick 11 Alex Tait 10 Jimmy Gopperth 9 Micky Young
1 Jon Golding 2 Matt Thompson 3 Euan Murray 4 James Hudson (Capt.) 5 Andrew Van
der Heijden 6 Tim Swinson 7 Brent Wilson 8 Ally Hogg
Replacements
16 Rob Vickers 17 Grant Shiells (for Golding 66 mins) 18 Kieran Brookes (for
Murray 68 mins) 19 Mark Wilson (for van der Heijden 72 mins) 20 Alex Gray 21
(for Wilson 51 minutes) Chris Pilgrim 22 Tane Tu’ipulotu (for Manning 34 mins)
23 Tom Catterick (for Fielden 68 mins)
Harlequins:
15. Mike Brown 14. Tom Williams 13. Ugo Monye 12. Jordan Turner-Hall 11. Ollie Lindsay-Hague 10 Rory Clegg 9 Dave Moore 1 Ceri Jones 2 Joe Gray 3 James Johnston 4 Ollie Kohn 5 Pete Browne 6 Maurie Fa’asavalu 7 Will Skinner 8 Chris Robshaw (Capt.)
Replacements
16 Chris Brooker
(for Gray 51 mins) 17 Joe Marler (for Jones 51 mins) 18 Mark Lambert (for
Johnston 51 mins) 19 Tomas Vallejos (for Kohn 58 minutes) 20 Chris York 21 Ben
Urdapilleta 22 Tom Casson (for Turner-Hall 63 mins) 23 Ross Chisholm
Attendance: 5,011
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This was a very competitive Falcons team. They did a number on us in the line out, shaded or nullified the scrum and did us twice in the centres. We were well in the game until 10-15 mins in the second half. Do not blame the 9-10 partnership..they were largely getting bad ball and did the best they could with it. With ball in hand going forward we were'nt that bad. We thrive on quick ball and didn't get too much of it.
(Squirrel Nutkin. Sorry I didn't get your message till this morning).
Fair play to Newcastle they were well worked tries. They turned the scrum slightly so that Quins back row were on the blind side. Then they broke to the open side with one of their back row making the extra man and ran hard and fast and exploited the position.
There was even "The mighty Quin" sung on the Metro train but in the ground our lack of cohesion around grouping meant we offered little in the way of vocal support.
Please Conor get them to practice catching this week!!!
Was it Lindsay-Hague or Brown that dummied our defence for your first try? It's not often I clap a move by the other team but that was very nice.
See yous on Friday!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:03:06:09:36:20 by Leipziger.
if we hadn't worked out some other options in the week in between - why the hell not? - what do they do at training then?
Thanks. Yes Lindsay-Hague made the incision and Brown made the final pass to Williams in the corner. :-) If lightning wore red boots it would be called Olly!
I was on the first metro out I wore an away shirt as I walked through Newcastle!! No[one had any idea what the shirt was!! I sang and got depressed