Prof’s Positives Week 28: London Irish

By The Prof
March 20 2003

Another away game another loss, no positives there I hear you cry but if we just look at – hang on one cotton pickin’ minute… we won!

Yes, that’s right, Quins won their first away game in the league since St Patrick’s Day 2001 (at Rotherham), that’s a whole 1.997 years without a league win!

To be honest it was a pretty poor match and some things were not good, our retention of the ball, line outs etc., but the pack performed well in the tight against the most successful scrum in the Premiership. If you think of the eight we have four players who would be in the starting 22 missing from the front row – Jase, Woody, Laurent and Starr, thankfully Tani has been playing incredibly well and Dawson has really shown a lot of quality at tight. At loose head Ceri Jones has already made an impact, his defence around the fringes of rucks and mauls was excellent, especially in the first 15 minutes when we were really under the cosh.

In the second row Simon Miall (Sky’s MOTM) had his first start in a league game, Roy Winters was just back from being out all season with a torn Achilles to replace Diprose who has basically been playing on one leg for months. Roy and Bill Davison should both get a mention for all of the effort they put in around the pitch – if an award for unsung hero were started they would probably be two of the top contenders. Ace had a quiet game by his standards but he had a few 'robust' moments and he managed to avoid getting carded.

Our top lineout jumper, Alex Codling, is missing again with his recurrent hamstring injury which he got in the build up to his first cap against Argentina. And Pat Sanderson is a long term injury worry again and he is really the only out and out number 7 we have. So all in all the scrum should have been a mess but it worked well and the defence from the forwards was fabulous to prevent LI scoring in the first quarter. The front row especially put in some vital hits and another man who must be mentioned for his all round play was Andre Vos. He had a good game, he kept his cool even though at times you could tell he was fuming with some of the decisions the referee was coming up with.

Vos was described by Evs at the post match conference as being “a great captain who will just get better and better and he is also a magnificent player, Vos is just like David Wilson and from me there is no higher praise”. For anyone to be described as being as good as Wilson is great praise indeed, it looks like Evs and Scotty made a great signing there.

The two newest signings in the backs – Fulton and Deane – have also made an impact in the short while they have been here. Although Fulton was occasionally out of position and we lost a couple of balls because he wasn’t at the back of the ruck or maul when the ball came out, he has one of the quickest and most accurate passed I have seen since, ex-Quins’ backs coach, Richard Hill was playing. Fulton gives Burke more time to decide and every millisecond counts when you have your opposite number and their back row flying up at you.

The other new signing, Mel Deane, has settle in beside Greenwood very well and Deane’s direct running and strength means he will usually break the gain line and he seems to work well with Will.

Nathan had a rare wobbly start to the game but regained his concentration and put in a solid performance as always. Gollings’ kicking from hand was occasionally poor but his eagerness to run back at the opposition was good to see. Luger sadly didn’t have the chance to shine – every time he got the ball there were two or three LI players on him.

So although the game was scrappy and although a lot of the moves broke down and we only scored one try there were enough good performances to make us all smile. I suppose the other thing that helped with the smiles was the result – we won, WE WON, beating London Irish, on St Patrick’s Day, on telly, in the sunshine! :-)

Oh, did I mention that we didn’t just beat London Irish once but three times over a space of less than a week? Well we did, in fact it could have been four wins out of four is the LI U19s hadn’t pulled out of their match against us.

The U21s won 33-10, with Tom Allen, Tom Wilcocks, Tom Guest, Jon Hammond and Henry Barratt all scoring and Adrian Jarvis having a good game at fly-half. Barratt and Jarvis were also to play a part in the 2nd team victory over LI on Wednesday night with a 34-18 score line. Both played well and Jarvis kicked well getting four penalties but only one conversion. Greenstock (who was leading the team on the night) scored two tries, with the others coming from Jewell and Cardinali.

The pack was completely dominant until the scrums went uncontested in the second half – they were shunting and wheeling the LI scrum at will and a penalty came from a rolling maul which had travelled about 40 yards towards the LI line – it truly was a thing of beauty! The front row of Walton, Hayter and Cardinali were all over their opposite numbers and Evans and Rudzki played well in the second row. Slemen looked confident at fullback and he put in a lovely kick to give Greenstock his second try.

Now we are coming up to internationals and Jase has made an incredible recovery to start on the tighthead against Scotland on Saturday. Greenwood will continue to marshal the midfield but sadly Dan has been dropped to the bench with Robinson from Sale (sorry Sharks) being chosen instead.

In the U21s Chris Bell and Ugo Monye will both be in the starting line up against Scotland at Newbury on Friday, not to be outdone, the Ladies team are also providing an international this weekend – Leah Carey, the Ladies’ No8 will be pack leader for the U19s against Wales on Sunday – we congratulate them all.

The Ladies had a fine win away against Avon (0-22) with tries from Tanya Richardson, Jo Morgan, Saskia Brazier-Kobus and Leah Carey. This result has taken the Ladies up to second place, with just two games to go, just three points behind the leaders Chesham who they will meet in the final match of the season on the 6th April.

London Tribes pulled out of their game against the Amateurs so the Ams get the points.

From the fans’ side of things there was a group at the ball in memory of Freddy Greenwood to raise money for Tommy’s, a lot of the players and staff were there too. Another group did the charity abseil at Twickenham for Cancer Research UK and a lot of money was raised – a number of London Irish fans and one Leeds fan (hi skibum) joined the group which had been organised by Viks from the Quins Ladies team (for which she got MOTM from the LI website) and something in the order of £10,000 was raised. Afterwards the abseilers met up with other fans to go on one of Will’s coaches to the match at Reading, it was a fun trip with singing from the moment we left to the moment we arrived back at The Stoop. LI and Quins fans bantered and partied together at Reading and, although the rugby itself wasn’t up to much, the day certainly showed the finer side of rugby. To top it all off the club have organised a party next week - the Quins Supporters Party at The Stoop on Friday 28th March, everyone is invited and the proceeds from the £10 entrance fee are being split between the Nick Duncombe fund and Whizz Kidz, I hope you will come along to support these charities and our club.

So, let’s look back, we lost our terrible away record, beat LI three times in a week, raised loads of money for charity, have players in three different England teams, the Ladies are in second place in their league and the firsts are moving closer to mathematical security.

Not a bad old week to be a Quins fan all things considered.


By the way - Happy Persian New Year to you all.