Harlequins 22-19 Worcester

I really, really, really dislike evening kick-offs as they are cold with less atmosphere as most supporters just try to keep even vaguely warm. However Friday evening kick-offs are the worst as most of us will be tired after a long day at work and lacking, on the whole, any large away support due to the traveling difficulties. This Friday evening game was made worse by a game which failed to inspire all those managed to turn up with one team playing in a highly negative way (assisted by the referee) coupled by some silly little mistakes by the other.

referee) coupled by some silly little mistakes by the other.

The first twenty minutes went the way of the visitors. Within the first minutes the ball was passed through the hands on the Quins tryline. Instead of kicking clear the ball was kept in hand, going backwards so five metre scrum to Worcester and low and behold Lemi went over for a try. Worcester kicked penalty after penalty whilst the few Quins attacks ended in knock-ons or other silly errors. Then Worcester seemed to start to tire.

With the second quarter saw Quins up the tempo. High tackles started appearing along with late hits, tackles off the ball and from what seemed every breakdown a Worcester body requiring the services of a number of orange jacketed ball boys. Finally after the umpteenth infringement the referee finally lost patience and Lemi was in the bin. Even then there was still just a trade of penalties. Finally another Quins attack saw Hopper go over for the first Quins try. Now the tempo went up as Quins thawed by heat of endeavour. Again and again the attacks went in with Worcester throwing everything to stop them. On the try line again and after a brief discussion between a coach, sorry water carrier, Percival and the referee, Percival limped off. The attacks kept coming and yet another rolling maul dragged down and this time the Worcester eight saw yellow and the resulting penalty meant that at half time it was 16-14.

After half time any concerns regarding Percy by his old club were allayed when he ran out leading his team with Goode taking his traditional position for kicks including re-starts, well behind his teammates. Once again, though, it was very messy although Quins did seem to now have the upper hand in the scrums winning several penalties. Finally the decision for the posts by Quins gave the team a nice buffer. Worcester were now desperately throwing everything at Quins but not getting anywhere. After a raft of changes by Worcester they managed to break through for a score tying the score although luckily the conversion was missed.

Again Quins marched up the pitch trying everything. Finally Nev got bored and slotted over a nice drop goal. Attacks came and went and finally Worcester understood their ability to get down the field was unlikely from 70 meters and kicked the ball out of play. To sum up the press conference COS was as angry as I’ve seen him and in essence said that everything Worcester could do to slow the game down they did, some of it even legally. Richard Hill basically said yeah they did.

So what did I take from the match. Well ever since Sarries disrupted the Quins game plan and won other teams will try and emulate them especially the teams with less, shall we say, skill. With luck a better referee will be able to sort out the more obvious infringements. Likewise if the referee is going to be hot on the time it takes to recycle the ball after a tackle then the six second use it or lose it rule at the base of a ruck would be stringently enforced. A wins a win and at least the lads will be fit as they had plenty of time to rest during the game.

Not a game to remember unfortunately.