Saturday Evening 10.30pm - I wanted to start writing this report earlier but we have guests for dinner. Excuses have been made and I have escaped to bed, a long tournament at Havant RFC tomorrow and I want to watch the Calzaghe vs Hopkins fight before we leave.

The thoughts occurs to me that the last time I had a scarf it was silk and tied to my wrist at a T’Pau concert, hopefully the game will be a more memorable experience.

The first half was symptomatic of our whole season in the GP. We huff and puff but we somehow fail to get over the try line. Quins defence at times is quite superb but at nil-nil after 25 minutes I say to my better half that Quins are lucky to have nil. The forwards are on everything that moves and the backs are given good quality ball but something seems to be missing. Every time we break the impressive Monye seems to be in the way or the passes are way to slow and we end up running out of space. Still the ball comes back on our side and we endeavour to start up the backs again.

The forwards continue to drive and on 30 minutes we get a penalty when Chris White finally pings Ceri Jones for driving down on Faan. Faan has beasted him at every scrum to the point that Jones is virtually binding on Dec. The penalty by Hewitt agonisingly drifts to the left and strikes the upright. The resulting break causes palpitations as Quins threaten to break out of their own half before a forward pass reigns in their waywardness and we return to Irish camping on the 22.

As the half draws to a close a rare expedition by the Quins team leads to a scrummage on the Irish 10 metre line. After a number of re-sets Chris White pings Dan Murphy for pulling the scrum down. My from view in the East Stand it still looks like Jones is pulling it down and on watching it on TV later you can see Faan going through Jones and the scrum collapsing again. Jarvis duly slotted the penalty and for all of our dominance we have nothing to show for it.

HT – Irish 0 – Queens 3

In the toilets I hear Liamk berating a Quins fan that Chris White is wearing a Quins shirt. I get stick for wearing a quartered Pink shirt and we agree that things have to get better in the second half.

Sunday Morning 6.05am – I am up to watch the Calzaghe fight before I drive down to Havant, it is going to be a long day.

The second half starts with the announcement that Chris White is injured and that Wavey Davey is taking over. I can’t help feeling that things have got a lot worse although Liam will be happy. Irish continue to dominate and we get another penalty that Hewit pushes to the right, will we ever score. Davey then excels when Hewit knocks on in the tackle followed by Quins knocking on and Irish get a scrum in the Quins 22. From watching it on TV it is clear that Davey missed the Irish knock on and asks the Touch Judge who says no as well. Perhaps it’s just me but this season I think Touch Judges have been really poor.

Hewit goes off due to injury, fingers and toes crossed that he is fit for next week and Hickey comes on at full back. We continue to dominate and a dive in the corner by Danaher and Thorpe leads to a review by the video referee but Dec’s knock on is clear for all to see. Quins occasionally break over the half-way line but these are as rare as a good performance by Shaun Davey.

Then on 60 minutes things change when Dodge comes off and Richards goes to 9 and Nils goes to 12, JML replaces Dec and Coetzee replaces Paice. Suddenly there is an injection of pace and the anticipation rises as the crowd starts to believe that the scores are going to come. A ruck forms and Mike Brown comes in form the side and he is sent to the bin, Hickey slots the penalty. Joy at last, we are on the board 3-3.

From the kick off Quins have their most sustained 3 minutes of pressure before Irish turn the ball over. Faan finally comes off and Murph comes on so that we have uncontested scrums although ironically this is the last scrum of the game with 10 minutes remaining. From another ruck a Quins player comes through the middle of the ruck but then takes Richards out. A stupid offence and Hickey duly makes him pay, 6-3 woo-hoo.

With 7 minutes remaining Davey and his touch judge miss 2 forward passes and Jarvis is then given a pot-shot at the posts from just in front of the half-way line. Like Hewit’s in the first half the ball drifts to the left and Irish build again. A series of driving mauls lead us up to the 22 and a break by Maps splits the defence. A loose pass, which looks to go forward (missed again, that is refereeing consistency) is picked by Topsy and with players in front of him and limited space he manages to wriggle over the try line for the score that all of our dominance deserves. 13 – 3

There is still time for Bob to go to the bin as he takes Care late and Jarvis secures the bonus point for Quins with a penalty to make the final score 13 – 6

Full time Irish 13 – Quins 6 

A much deserved win but boy did we make hard work of it. For me Peter Richards is one of the best attacking scrum-half’s in the game and the change in intensity when he went to scrum-half eventually forced us over the winning line. There were a number of good performances, Dodge as always, Hudson, Steffon, Topsy and Maps however Man of the Match for me was Faan. He was supreme in the scrum and his work at the rucks ensured that the ball kept coming back our way.

We will need to take our chances next week when we get them but this win sets us up nicely for the game of the season (so far?)

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