I see Red, I see Red, I see Red: Quins v Munster

By Kiwi Di
January 20 2005

It was “A big day out” the home of rugby, the stage had been set in Thormond Park, could we finish off what we nearly succeeded in doing, beating Munster…

Well if the stress of writing the match report wasn’t enough I had also embarked of encouraging 22 friends and family to come with me, (there were mumblings that they thought they were going to witness a white wash – I kept telling them they would be pleasantly surprised). 3 new recruits (Aidan 7mths, Alexandra 14mths and Henry 3yrs) were all decked out and ready for their match day experience.  

We arrived at the Stadium in dribs & drabs – though I managed to be in my seat with 8mins to spare. Poised and rearing to go Ref link in one hand and pen & paper in the other – facing a sea of red, it did look rather daunting…then I remembered that I was surrounded by the bleus! Now this is where the difficulty starts….the game starts – and Batquin’s pet hate was soon mine – their was a large number of people still taking their seats in front of me, so although I heard the whistle I couldn’t see a thing! Not to panic I should hear the ref…oh no that was thwarted as well – £5 not well spent it wasn’t working! (Fingers crossed the video at home is working – Contingency plan I) As the ref link was being dismantled by a cousin I managed to see what was going on….

We had had a good start (my notes had that) and within seconds Andy Dunne had attempted a drop goal, alas it missed but we had put our first points on the board with a penalty kick by Andy due to a collapsed scrum – less than 2 minutes later, Quins 3 Munster 0.

The next 5 minutes saw us start well from the re-start but then possession went to Muster who brought the ball up the field, in determination. There were several phases of play culminating in Anthony Horan going over towards the corner, Paul Burke managed to convert the try so @ 7mins it was 3-7 lead to Munster.

The restart was accompanied by the Munster celebrating by breaking into song as The Fields of Athenry echoed around the stadium. It must have sounded like a lullaby for Aidan as he dropped off to sleep – his Irish Mum was proud!

Well the ref link is back in my ear, but to keep it working I have to keep one finger on the wires & battery, whilst writing with the other hand…OK now all systems go – til I heard the ref, he’s French, we are the bleu team & his discussions with the linesmen are in French, Lou where are you when I need you! But after a while I managed to understand his Franglais, with a French accent practice “Hands away” “OK, OK, OK” “Stay there don’t move” to understand him, but back to actual matter in hand….

We had two chances to put some points on the board when Munster were penalised, but alas Andy Dunne didn’t manage to slot them over. From where we were it actually looked like the first had gone over, angles can be so deceiving.

Quins are working well and with a break by Gavin Duffy we are heading for a corner, unfortunately he was taken into touch before he could get the pass away. Munster take the lineout and drive up the field to be given a penalty which the kick for touch. There is loose ball which is collected by Dunne and we are off with Ugo, unfortunately he was tackled, ball comes out and unfortunately we didn’t get the bounce off the kick, and Cullen sent the ball back to our 22.

Ace to throw, stolen by Munster – but a knock on gives us the put in with the scrum. Cleared and a good run by Dafydd. Quins backs are taking the game to Munster. We are doing well on the turnovers as Munster have conceded 4 in the first 20mins (OK I had the help of the TV here!) A little other statistic is that on the weight of the packs we are 5 stone lighter so I think we are holding our own well.

Dawson concedes a penalty in the scrum – the ref doesn’t like him – Burkey kicks for touch.

So'oialo is spoken to by the ref  - he needs to catch the ball so a warning.

Cullen now kicks to the 22 for the line out. Muster take & feed the driving into a maul again making ground, the ball comes out again to be fed back in the opposite directions – only to find the Twickenham Express (Ugo Moyne) waiting for the intercept and he’s off down the length of the pitch – no chance of catching him. With a lovely soft dive under the posts and with Dunne converting it’s 10 – 7 to us @ 28mins

Munster have a blood replacement while one of their forwards is getting cleaned up. At 31mins Munster are awarded a penalty, Burkey to kick from just inside the halfway (those old songs come back into my head “We love you Burkey” but I have to remember he is the opposition now!) Fortunately for us he misses.

There is a high ball that Gavin takes with ease, we are making come good ground. I think we can say the team is playing well.

There is a bit of tension on the pitch with Ace & Munster 12 having a bit of a stand off. Back to a scrum where there was some good rugby played until we give away another penalty, instead of going for the points Munster kick for the line out, half time is looming. Quins are defending well, as the scrum goes down a second time it is apparent that Karl needs to come off so is replaced by the new dad on the pitch (hope Roy hasn’t had too many sleepless nights). Quins penalised for not being 10m, Munster are working the line, with Quins holding their defence. Another penalty, but this time the consequences are stiffer, Ace has been penalised for coming in from the side and the ball was inside – that’s according to the ref, to be honest I couldn’t make out why…was the ref trigger happy? We now have issues with the scrum that had been doing well, Nick Easter comes off so Cameron Dott can come in to hook.

Munster had advantage, back to another penalty this time it seems as if the ref is mixing up Dunne & Keogh (can’t see the resemblance myself!) Munster kick again for the line out and then work their way to the corner where Leamy goes in for a try @44mins on the board. He had been tackled on the way down & it looked like a possible double movement but regardless of what we decide the ref has given it. Burke set out to convert but misses. We go into half time 10-12 down but definitely in the game.

 

Half time stats (courtesy of Sky) make for interesting analysis:

NB: Shame they couldn’t provide me with the full time ones!

Now we start into the second half – this won’t take long as with the start of the Mexican wave it was a little hard to see what was going on from my seat. So I was relying the ref link – there must have been a scrum as I can hear “Don’t move, crouch, hold, engage” There is some good play by Gavin & Dafydd and a nice kick by Andy Dunne to the touch line inside their 22. I hear that we have 2mins left of only playing with 14 men, and we seem to be holding our own, again my notes seem to refer to Gavin & Dafydd - @ 7mins we are back to full strength, but your reporter is a tad on the thirsty side – I can hardly believe when my brother arrives back with the beers & he’s forgotten his sister’s! Oh well I don’t think I had enough hands to have a beer. Now according to my notes I think the ref is inconsistent, we are penalised from coming in from the side, the last time that happened we lost a player! This time Burkey gets to slot the penalty @ 50mins and we still have 15 men on the pitch!

The restart sees us driving forward, then Muster with the ball have a knock on – we have possession and what looks like a possible try only to be thwarted by the ref not playing advantage, blowing his whistle and saying “Sorry” that’s ok then!

The noise levels were rising for Quins, @ 59mins we have a substitution, Gavin is off and Tom Williams is on, the crowd are really behind Quins as we are holding our own just a shame they are not converting the energy to points. I tell members of my group to watch Tom as he has had so much praise on the board, one of them says “I recognise him from the showers”, to this I start to wonder then all becomes clear the person in question is a soldier and also trains at Aldershot.  We come onto the final points in the game when a penalty was given to Munster @66mins and Burkey makes it 10-18. But there was still plenty of time on the clock for us to win the game. Unfortunately for Ugo, he was stopped in his tracks on the way to a possible 2^nd try by a class tackle by Cullen. Off the pitch the mini rugby balls have now been taken & thrown at stewards walking by – I thought we were here to watch rugby!

So in an attempt to take temptation away from my brother I ask him for the ball to give to Henry (with parental consent) he is being shy but not to be out done Alexandra puts her hands up to claim the ball & promptly bites it much to the amusement of her father. Henry now decides he wants one, Greg hand over the other one you have! Now all the children are happy.  The attendance record was set, 33, 883 not a bad effort and finally @ 41mins my beer turns up, and the ref link tells my I have 2mins in which to drink it as the game is nearly over. A final substitution for Munster with 12 off and 21 on.

Both teams have given there all in the second half – unfortunately for us lady luck hadn’t smiled but we could all leave Twickenham with our heads held high & look forward to trying to upset Leicester in a weeks time! There is always hope!

 

The Press Conference 

By the time I found the press conference it had started, I felt like I stumbled in in true Bridget Jones style, how to make an entrance! I had borrowed the best of journalistic equipment from a friend who works at the BBC, but that stayed firmly in my bag due to being late so I had to resort to contingency plan II – back to taking notes!

So my apology for not having this verbatim, but this is my summarised interpreted version:

Mark was talking about Ospreys…I thought we had just played Munster – note to ones self – really need to hear the questions before writing the answers! He then went on to describe Quins as a young side (do I detect the growth of a team that can really make an impact in the future?) “We have a lot of players missing and last week we played 50mins of good rugby on a heavy pitch, this week the pitch was better and we played better.” (I thought the team had played well today too!). The view towards Welford Rd, that’s tough but we are having a difficult time along with 5 other clubs (nice to know we are not alone) 

On today’s game, our line outs were not good, scrimmaging and kicking were better. Mark didn’t think he had seen the potential winners this year at this game, Toulouse are the ones to watch. If the don’t win they need their…(well the Mail quotes “backsides kicked”) but my notes had used a different word!

He had a lot of praise for Munster but they lacked pace. Looks like the “Paekakariki Express” (Cullen) has run out of gas me thinks. With Munster you know the type of game they are going to play but you just can’t stop it. There is not enough gas in there back 5. (Well we know we have some!)

Now on to Ugo “Yes, I had forgotten I had him on the books” quips Mark. He has had a rotten year through injuries – but a good first game back. On his second run towards the try line should he have chipped & chased asks someone. Mark thought there was no mistake on the offensive, the tackle by Cullen was class & calculated, great defence!

There was also praise for Dippy that he had played well.

Now for some good news, we signed someone this week – my ears prick at this – a possible scoop (along with all the other hacks), yes it’s a half back (I rang Prof with the news as soon as I got outside as I knew this [report] would be delayed) Because Simon Keogh is on the wing and the transfer deadline of the 28^th Feb is looming, if we had an injury at 9 we would be strained. Mark then mentions Maama going to Cardiff….the suspense is building who is it?!! Then the announcement the name we were all waiting for “Dave Von Hoesslin” from Natal Sharks & an ex Springbok. (I was thinking this would produce some debate on the board).

The next question Mark didn’t like the phrasing (and no it didn’t come from yours truly, I was still scribbling frantically than trying to get a question in) so he said he’d re-phrase it as he wasn’t a fortune teller (maybe Mark could add journalist to his roles) “Can we stay up? Yes!” (I’d tend to agree with this, am keeping my faith!)

So finally “Would you want to play at Twickenham again?

“If financial, yes.” (that’s the CEO talking) He also described how it was a great experience, they had had 4,000 children at the Stoop pre-match, and they’d made a few bob today. It’s also great for the game (again I agree as some of my 20 friends are coming again). Mark’s only disappointment was that we didn’t knick it; I think we can all agree with Mark on that one.

With that I made my exit – now where was my phone…