Another 5 League Points As Nottingham Are Defeated

By AlanQuin
January 30 2006

Another winning result with a bonus point was recorded as Nottingham was defeated at The Stoop by 31 points to 16. While not a runaway win with a large points tally for the home team, it was a workmanlike performance which produced the desired result.

From the start, when an excellent clearance gained 50 metres, it was obvious that the visitors were fired up for this game. From Quins’ first line-out, Vass put in a good box kick to take play back to the half way line. Quins began to press up field and conceded a penalty in Nottingham’s half when the ball was not released in the tackle. Then a fine break through the centre by Ugo Monye saw off three tacklers and the inside pass found Gavin Duffy who crossed by the posts for the first try with only five minutes into the match. Jarvis added the conversion and Quins led 7 – 0.

Ugo breaks and is well supported by Duffy ©Prof

Almost from the restart Nottingham gained a penalty 10 metres into the Quins’ half, but Stenhouse’s kick drifted right. Quins again sought to attack and a promising run by Keogh saw him put a foot in touch ten metres short of the line. But shortly after, another fine attack down the left was finally stopped by the defence almost on the try-line. From the resulting series of rucks Tom Guest, making his first start for the first team, picked up and dived over for his first try of the afternoon. Jarvis again added the conversion and after eleven minutes the lead was 14 – 0.

Tom Guest scores ©Prof

Nottingham were making Quins work hard and were giving a good account of themselves. They had not been easy opponents in the fixture at Beeston in September and they were not going to lie down for Quins to trample. They competed hard at the breakdown and tried to run the ball and play it wide when they could. They put their first points on the board from a penalty awarded for an infringement at a scrum and this time Stenhouse kicked accurately. 14 – 3 after fifteen minutes.

Vass tries a charge down ©Prof

Encouraged by their score, the visitors began to exert considerable pressure but their attacks foundered on unforced errors, the final pass being knocked on or lost in contact. A good interception by Jim Evans relieved another attack. Eventually Quins had a scrum inside the Nottingham 10 metre line. A smart pick up and dash saw Tom Guest score his second try of the match under the posts leaving an easy conversion for Jarvis to increase the score to 21 – 3.

Jarvis passes to Brown ©Barquin Mad

Nottingham came back to the attack immediately and good passing and good inside pass saw the Nottingham lock, Paul Arnold cross for an easy try which Stenhouse converted and narrow the gap between the scores to 21 -10. Another penalty each from the two fly-halves saw the scores increase to 24 – 13 and Nottingham continued to increase pressure on the Quins’ defence, but were repulsed..

Miall disrupting the opposition lineout ©Prof

Quins had further opportunities to add to the score but declined to kick at goal looking for the bonus point try. A very kickable penalty was into the right corner by Jarvis, but from the line-out, catch and drive Quins knocked on. A penalty to the visitors from the ensuing scrum produced a line-out for Nottingham on the half way line. The throw-in saw the ball stolen by Evans but immediately after another penalty to the visitors saw Stenhouse attempt to kick from 47 metres and again fail to score. The interval arrived without further points for either side.

The QuinsRL team clap the players back onto the pitch ©Trubble

The interval, too, saw the introduction to the crowd of Harlequins Rugby League team in gleaming new shirts and they formed a short tunnel to greet the return of their Union colleagues as they came out for the second half. What awaited Quins was a torrid period of determined pressure and attack from the visitors for some 15 minutes. They retained the ball and played the game in Quins’ half of the field and only determined defence prevented the visitors from scoring. They too declined to kick for the posts from penalties and it was some ten minutes into the half before they finally did so and Stenhouse reduced the Quins’ lead to 24 – 16.

Some referees might have seen the two offside Nottingham players ©Prof

Nottingham now brought on their first replacements, refreshing the front row with a hooker and a prop. They continued to try to attack through their pack and both sides caused the referees some problems in control of the scrum. Then a good Quins’ rolling maul was pulled down allowing Jarvis to kick from the penalty deep into the Nottingham twenty two. Another penalty came from the ensuing catch and drive. And then the visitors’ discipline let them down as it had in September and the first of two yellow cards saw their prop sent to the sin bin for punching. His replacement at the next scrum was barely on the field for a minute and a half before he was sent to the bin for pulling down a catch and drive and Nottingham were reduced to thirteen men.

The look on the binned player's face says it all ©Barquin Mad

How Quins failed to score in the following ten minutes is difficult to understand and it can only be accounted for by some poor decision making in attack and some exceptional defence by Nottingham. There were unforced errors, too, on both sides.

It was when the period of yellow card punishment had ended that Quins finally scored the try which assured the bonus point and the victory. From a scrum in the Nottingham half, Nick Easter made deep inroads into opposition territory and the ball was moved rapidly left where it found Jim Evans who scored in the corner. Adrian Jarvis’ excellent conversion from the touchline made the game safe with eight minutes remaining.

Although Nottingham tried very hard to run the ball during the remainder of the match they were kept deep in their own half of the pitch and the final whistle followed in due course. The final score was 31 – 16.

From the comments of many Quins’ supporters in the bars after the match it is clear that there is an unreasonable expectation among them which affects their view of the performance of the team. It seems to be an expectation of flowing, high scoring, champagne type rugby with Quins blowing away the opposition and scoring a succession of tries with a touchdown roughly every five minutes. Implied by that expectation is an arrogant disrespect of the other teams in National Division One where there are many good players. Putting Quins down is their target and they go hard to achieve success.

This was not the best performance by Quins this season, but it did the job required. Nottingham are a good defensive unit and their forwards fought hard and caused Quins problems in the scrum. The forthcoming visit of Quins to Ireland Avenue will be awaited with some belief that on this performance they can cause an upset. But Quins will have a number of missing players back for the semi-final. They can only be strengthened by the return of Mehrtens, Greenwood and So’oialo and the lessons will have been learned from this match. As Dean Richards has said before “sometimes it is necessary to win ugly”.

TEAMS

Harlequins:

15. Mike Brown. 14. Ugo Monye, 13. Gavin Duffy, 12. Mel Deane, 11. Simon Keogh, 10. Adrian Jarvis, 9. Ian Vass, 1. Ceri Jones, 2. Tani Fuga, 3. Ricky Nebbett,
4. Jim Evans, 5. Simon Miall, 6. Tom Guest, 7. Andre Vos (Capt.), 8. Nick Easter,
Replacements: 16. Jimmy Richards, 17. Lorne Ward, 18. Alex Rogers, 19. George Robson, 20. Chris Robshaw, 21. Will Greenwood, 22. Tom Williams
Scorers: Tries: Guest 2, Duffy, Evans; Conversions: Jarvis 4; Penalty Jarvis

Nottingham:
15.Ben Thompson; 14. David Jackson, 13. Tom Kirk, 12. Tim Molenaar, 11 Josh Kay.; 10. Neil Stenhouse, 9. Kevin Brennan (Capt); 1. Peter Cook, 2, Joe Duffey, 3, Nigel Hall, 4. Paul Arnold, 5. Lee Morley, 6. Mark Easter, 7. David Wilks, 8. Adam Corcoran.
Replacements: 16. Tonga Lea’aetoa, 17. Alex Loney, 18. Neil Fowkes, 19. Nic Fitisemanu, 20. Graham Chenoworth, 21. Ali Warnock, 22. William Logan
Scorers: Try: Arnold; Conversion: Stenhouse; Penalties : Stenhouse 3

Referee: Rowan Kitt (RFU)