Prof’s Positives Week 18: Montauban (a)

By The Prof
January 16 2004

So, Quins were travelling away again, talk amongst hacks and the fans of various other Premiership clubs was about relegation and establishment clubs, but something odd was happening, Quins weren’t being mentioned!

Things were strange, Quins were playing well on the road, Quins weren’t being mentioned in any articles about relegation battles or the old guard at the RFU or about having a number of high profile players who were just here for the money. Quins talk was about how a prop was top of they try scoring table, well Quins don’t score tries do they, they just rely on the boot of Paul Burke...

But the reality was far from it, Ceri Jones, son of a sheep farmer, prop, self proclaimed ‘hardest man in the Premiership’ and recent novice to the Welsh national squad was on a fine run of try scoring, he was up there with Ugo Monye and Simon Keogh on eight first team tries apiece.

Ah, yes but that may be a fluke, Quins are still a team that is terrible away from home… A number of articles have been written over the last three or four years about how terrible the Quins side is when they travel away from The Stoop, but this season the articles tend to say little about such things, after all, the team have just played three very hard games away from home – Gloucester, Sale and Newcastle and done rather well. Perhaps the hacks have started to realise that Quins can actually play rugby, their pre-penned articles full of clichés are no longer of interest.

The current Harlequins side are playing well, making chances and scoring from them, they are winning both at home and away, they are not buying in big name internationals on huge wages, Home grown youngsters are coming into the team and playing well. The players who have been brought into the squad seem to have settled in well and are playing well with the rest of the squad.

So there have been a few changes in the attitude of some to NEC Harlequins of London.

But Quins were travelling to Montauban, the team with the strong forwards who ran Bath close two years ago and who eat London Irish at home just a couple of weeks ago. Quins wanted to use their pacey backs to beat them , they wanted a hard ground and good conditions.

On the Saturday morning things didn’t look good for the travelling Quins fans, reports back from the pathfinders weren’t good, it had already been raining heavily for two days and it didn’t look like letting up any time soon. On arrival the ground looked like it would play right into Montauban’s hands - a heavy pitch and heavy drizzle for their heavy and talented pack.

The game was better than any of the travelling or listening support could have imagined, six tries were scored. Ugo Monye showed his pace twice to score and came close on a couple of other times, with Ceri Jones being rested he had taken the lead in the try scoring table.

Ace Tiatia scored another try from a Burke grubber but probably the best score of the first half came from a fabulous moment between the two lanky Quins lads – Gavin Duffy and Will Greenwood – Duffy fielded a dodgy clearance and looked for an attacking chance and he did many times throughout the game, his left peripheral vision spotted the waving Greenwood on the wing and he kicked the ball wide for him, Greenwood followed the trajectory, waited for the bounce off the sodden turf, collected it and ran in to score – beautiful, really beautiful.

The travelling support enjoyed the second half, some fabulous handling was shown by the whole side as Quins swept upfield again and again, perhaps a couple of moves were a tad too extravagant given the conditions, but that is the old Quins way isn’t it?

The moves that lead to Deane and Sanderson’s tries were fabulous, the ball travelling through hand after hand with forwards and backs intermingling well. Burke had possibly the best game of his Quins career and that is saying something.

Six tries to one was the final score, the Quins fans were singing, the home fans were gracious in defeat in the first leg of this round. The Montauban fans looked after us extremely well including arranging transportation from bar to bar. I hope they enjoy their visit to Twickenham as much as we enjoyed our trip to their town.

In the physio room there are only two players, both who are doing well, Josh Taumalolo is still working hard on his recovery and Simon Miall should be back in about six weeks or so.

On the youth side of things, Mark Lambert has been named in the starting XV for the England U19 side to play Scotland at Fylde on Friday January 16. Marlow Warrington-Mattei and Chris Robshaw start on the bench, well done to the three of them.

Elsewhere in the club the Ladies played well but had a try scored against them in the last minute of their game against the club from a higher league – Rosslyn Park. This week they play Chesham, the top side in the league, Quins are second, let's get behind them on Sunday (if we have a voice left after Saturday).

The Amateurs recorded a win against Old Grammarians 24-3 with one try coming from Stevens and three from the inside centre Smith.

So, we are the club with the best first leg lead, we scored more points and scored more tries than anyone else, we had the largest crowd in the first round of the competition and there are more sells out coming up, we have the players and fans of Montauban visiting this weekend and the Ladies have a top of the table clash.

There are ten players rested for this weekend’s game but the side still looks good – hmmm, strength in depth too, are we sure this is Quins? It has even been reported that Evs has smiled two weeks running so please check for flying pigs, Hell freezing over, rivers of blood etc… or perhaps, just perhaps, Quins actually have a good team who are enjoying playing and who we all like to watch.

Just enjoy it and get behind the team, after all, it’s better than any other option.

Come on you Quins!