Quins 6-13 Northampton: The Kicking Tee of Terror
By Poorfour
September 15 2013
In the pubs and coffee shops of TW1, old men huddle over their caramel mocha-lattes, their cheeks reddened from one-too-many snifters from the old hip flask, and they do not talk of it to outsiders. But catch one alone, on a wintry evening after last orders, and he may - if you are (un)lucky - tell you a tale to chill the heart and curdle the blood. Of awful fate, of outrageous fortune, of a prohecy fulfilled and most chilling of all, of a kicking tee haunted by the vengeful spirit of a Galway-based announcer and two pantomime bears.
How else to explain it? On a dark and stormy Friday 13th, Harlequins succumbed, for the first time in many a (full) moon, to Saints, but not in the way that anyone would have predicted. There was definitely something spooky about it, and it wasn't just a new Saints away kit that comes in a hue last seen in Ghostbusters. (Come to think of it, has anyone ever seen Dylan Hartley and Slimer together?)
The week before, both teams had won but in contrasting style. Quins had trailed Wasps for nearly the whole game, then gone ahead only to gift Andy Goode a tricky conversion to win the match at the death. The thickness of the post saved our blushes. Saints, meanwhile, had put Exeter to the sword in a display of power that for me was the performance of the weekend. Most observers had predicted a home loss, Quins to be overpowered by the might of a pack boasting Corbisiero, Hartley, Lawes, Wood and Manoa, coupled with the mismatch of George North, a man-mountain of Mount Doom proportions, facing Tom Williams, a player who bears no small resemblance to famous Hobbit Elijah Wood.
Quins won the kick-off - a good sign - and made headway with a maul into Northampton territory, rewarded after a period of pressure with a kick at goal from near the half way line. Nick Evans, struggling to find firm footing all night, scooped at the ball and it limped low and wide to the left. Quins continued to attack, but Saints won a penalty and a precision kick to the Quins 5m produced a lineout drive that looked certain to score. Somehow Casson held the ball up over the line, but Doran-Jones gave away a penalty for hinging down from the hips at the ensuing scrum. Myler made sure of the points. 0-3.
This set the pattern for much of the half. Quins had parity in territory and possession, made some good, hard yards and protected the ball far better than they had against Wasps. Saints broke back from time to time and looked dangerous when they did, but somehow Quins always forced the turnover and cleared their lines.
The mighty Saints pack failed to dominate. They had the better of the opening exchanges in the scrum, though it looked to me as if referee Andrew Small - who for the most part had a very good game - defaulted to going with reputation when he didn't know. Quins lost Joe Gray to a knee injury early in the first half - we can only hope that it's not a bad one - and the reconfigured front row with Buchanan on seemed to settle. To my eyes, by the end of the first half Paul Doran-Jones was putting pressure on Corbisiero, though without regular reward from the whistle. Certainly that side of the scrum was folding regularly at the hit, and PDJ seemed to be the one going forward. Meanwhile, Marler and the more volatile elements of the Saints pack developed a private feud that spilled into handbags from time to time throughout the match, but never quite exploded into enough to bring a card. I suppose it was unlikely that anything could ignite in that amount of rain.
Saints' best weapon was the lineout drive, which gained them a fair few yards and, usually, a penalty against Quins for collapsing the maul. Some of these I thought were a little harsh. A maul that lurches sideways and keels over wasn't pulled down just because there was a Quin sandwiched in the middle.
North, by contrast, was strangely under-utilised. He ran his lines gamefully, stood in space for the crossfield kick and even came off his wing in search of the ball, but the midfield always opted to take it up themselves. When the ball was kicked, a Quins player was usually on the end of it. In defence, North was tested by a Quins strategy of putting kicks behind him and forcing him to turn and run. As a tactic, it was effective on occasion but more often resulted in a 22 dropout than a serious attacking position.
This was not the game we had expected. Quins matched the physicality of Saints, and rarely took a backward step. Evans controlled the game well and made sure it was played in the right parts of the pitch. Handling and ball retention from both sides was excellent, especially considering the conditions. It was top-notch bad weather rugby and the neutral rugby fans near me declared it enthralling despite the lack of scoring.
Myler and Evans exchanged missed kicks before Evans finally got one, and the teams ended the first half level.
Both sides emerged for the second half with renewed sense of purpose, but for the first 20 minutes it seemed to be going Quins' way. They had a clear edge in both possession and territory, and won three further pots at goal, one success sandwiched between two misses, taking the score to to 6-3. Unfortunately, the successful kick was followed shortly after by a Myler equaliser 6-6.
The substitutes for both sides began to filter on, and when Ben Botica took the field it was with a palpable sense of relief from Quins fans. Surely his unflappable kicking style would be enough to start accumulating points and win the game? Botica's chance to take the lead, from a very kickable position, bounced off the upright.
Then came the decisive moment of the match. With one of his very few touches of the ball, North made a powerful break down the line, shrugging off tacklers. Though he was brought down, he managed to offload the ball and Saints continued their attack. A very clear forward pass was missed by the officials, but Quins stopped the attack and won a scrum, only for the clearance kick to be blocked. The ball was fumbled backwards by both teams, at one point bouncing loose for Mo to try to hack it clear but miss completely. The ball bobbled off a number of players, until Wilson finally got firm hands on the ball, out wide and with an overlap and made sure of the try. Myler slotted an excellent conversion to make it 6-13.
Quins redoubled their efforts. Guest made several excellent breaks. Robshaw, now noticeably quicker around the park and much more of a nuisance to the scrum half, secured an outrageous turnover by scooting round a ruck and tackling Dickson back into it. Richie McCaw would have been proud. But Saints knew that in the conditions it was going to be difficult to score. They kept their heads, closed things down and forced turnovers and penalties. It looked like game over when Easter was yellow carded, perhaps a touch harshly, for diving off his feet while trying to rip the ball out of Dickson's hands as he picked it up from a ruck. Quins' hopes lifted moments later when Myler batted a pass out of the air and, after an agonising wait for the TMO, also saw yellow. Robshaw and Brown led the counterattack but simply did not have enough to break down the Saints defence. A final Saints penalty and lineout allowed them to take the ball, run the final few seconds off the clock and close the game down.
The conclusion is inescapable. O'Shea must go. After the Wasps match he declared, in his usual breezy way, that "We'll play better than that and lose." How quickly those prophetic words were fulfilled. But though defeat hurts, I feel that Friday 13th has answered a lot of questions about this season's Quins, and more of them positive than negative.
On the downside, we can only hope that Nick Evans' kicking was a blip that won't be repeated. The "kick the ball behind North and Pisi" tactic was used a bit rigidly, and probably prevented any real chance of turning our possession and territory into tries. Joe Gray's injury is a big concern.
However, our front row units - both of them - held up pretty well against a much bigger and more expensive pack. George Merrick put in another quietly effective shift in which he was not overawed or overpowered by more experienced opposition. Our back row secured plenty of possession and quick ball against top class opposition. We forced turnovers when we needed them and looked dangerous on the counterattack. Continuity and promotion from within went toe-to-toe with the league's highest profile new signings and was not, ultimately, found wanting.
The game was decided by five missed kicks to one and a try that owed a lot to luck and a fair bit to the one glaring refereeing error of the night. Saints will celebrate their victory but I doubt they will rest easy the night before Quins visit Franklin's Gardens. Which will, for the record, be on Saturday 4th and not Friday 13th.
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Overall, I thought we fronted up well, but at this level you can't miss that many kicks and hope to win a tight game. Very worried about our lack of a cutting edge. We never looked like scoring a try...Quote:Poorfour
But though defeat hurts, I feel that Friday 13th has answered a lot of questions about this season's Quins, and more of them positive than negative.
This is spot on (as the rest of the piece), although I felt at times our front 5 were being marched backwards and Care was being forced and didnt have the protection he needed.
Just prior to their try, a line out in front of East Stand on our (defending) 10m line was not straight by a metre or two and just wasnt picked up by ref/assistant ref - our section of the stand was flumoxed by the decision.
Great piece, P4...