By AlanQuin
August 29 2006

A bad tempered encounter in the Welsh drizzle saw Harlequins lose this pre-season friendly by 24 – 14. It was a result and a performance which did little to inspire confidence in the few Quins’ supporters who braved the Bank Holiday traffic rush and the wet weather. From the start, when Marshall intercepted Mehrtens kick, the former All Black scrum-half was buzzing, trying to orchestrate the attack. The first scrum was Quins’ ball and despite the Welsh attempts to push early, which disrupted the scrum throughout the game, they retained possession. A penalty for a high tackle by the brother of well-known former Harlequin followed and Quins had a line out well into the Osprey’s half. A good break by Easter saw possession lost when he was penalised for not releasing in the tackle.

Another penalty to Quins saw Mehrtens find touch just outside the Welsh twenty-two and an excellent catch and drive was only stopped about five metres from the Ospreys’ line by strong defence and Quins were awarded a scrum. The first of a number of the evening’s mini-brawls broke out.

The game was only six minutes old when a second high tackle from Tiatia saw him shown a yellow card. The chance of easy points was declined and Mehrtens’ kick for touch gave Quins a good attacking platform. Another good catch and drive took Quins almost to the line. So’oialo made a couple of darts for the line but was repulsed and eventually Jimmy Richards managed to touch down on the line for the try. Mehrtens converted and after only eight minutes Quins led 0 – 7.

The next quarter of an hour saw largely inconclusive play in midfield and good defending and good work at the line out saw Quins resist the Ospreys’ pressure and the Welsh were restored to full strength without further loss of points. A penalty to Ospreys from an offence at a scrum on the Quins’ twenty-two saw Ospreys kick for a five metre line-out. Another penalty for an offence at the line out saw Henson kick the simple penalty to make the score 3 – 7

After twenty-six minutes a yellow card to So’oialo for blocking an attempted quick tap caused the game to turn. Keogh came in from the wing to play scrum-half leaving a weakness in the Quins’ defence which Ospreys were soon to exploit. A good Ospreys attack was twice stopped by strong Quins’ resistance but the ball squirted loose on the Welsh side for Hook to kick over the line and beat the defender to the touch down. Henson converted and Ospreys took the lead 10 – 7 after thirty-two minutes.

Almost immediately from the restart, the Ospreys full-back, Lee Byrne, combined with his centre Selley, to scorch down the right wing, where the gap in Quins’ defence was, and score again. Henson converted and the lead had increased to 17 - 7.

A penalty attempt by Mehrtens which might have reduced the arrears was uncharacteristically missed. Shortly after Quins were back to full strength and as the half came towards its end the yellow card was flourished again
This time it was shown to Quins’ lock Nicola Spanghero and Ospreys’ prop Paul James when the Frenchman took slightly violent objection to some fancy footwork by the Welshman.

The second half saw the Ospreys make some twelve changes and field a virtually new team. Quins made one or two changes but the lack of announcements and the squad numbers made it difficult to spot them. Luscombe came on for Harder and Ugo Monye for Tom Williams with Gavin Duffy dropping back to full back.

An early Quins’ attack saw the final pass knocked-on and shortly after that the ball was turned over in the tackle as Luscombe sought to run through. Ospreys quick response saw Vaughton put away down the wing to touch down under the posts. And after only three minutes of the second half Ospreys led 24 – 7 as Hook added the points for the conversion.

Further substitutions by Quins, after fifty-five minutes, saw Jarvis come on for Mehrtens and Croall for Ceri Jones while Ospreys appeared to change their whole front row. This latter substitution did nothing to improve the poor relations between the two packs with further outbreaks of violent behaviour.

Then a clever kick through by Jarvis saw Monye turn on the after burners and easily beat the covering defence to the touch down. Jarvis converted and the gap narrowed to 24 – 14

That ended the scoring with some twenty minutes still remaining. Tempers continued to flare; the whistle was all too frequently heard. Ospreys continued to try to run down the wings and one try scoring opportunity was stopped by Monye’s pace and timing of the tackle.

Afterwards, Director of Rugby Dean Richards was not pleased by what he had seen. Quins had not controlled the game. The scrum had worked well as had the line out. But they had not played the conditions well, had not played their opponents well and had not played the referee well. The yellow card for So’oialo had cost two tries.

Sop the phoney war is over and the real thing approaches. Next week the Double Header is upon us and the battle for survival in the Premiership begins. Quins will have to play better than this.

15. Tom Williams, 14. George Harder, 13. Gavin Duffy, 12. Stuart Abbott, 11. Simon Keogh, 10. Andrew Mehrtens, 9. Steve So'oialo, 1. Ceri Jones, 2. Jimmy Richards, 3. Ricky Nebbett, 4. Nicolas Spanghero, 5. Simon Mill, 6. Andre Vos, 7. Paul Volley (Capt.), 8. Nick Easter
Replacements: 16. Aston Croall, 17. Tani Fuga, 18. Mike Ross, 19. Jim Evans, 20. Chris Robshaw, 21. Luke Sherriff, 22. Adrian Jarvis, 23. Ugo Monye, 24. Tosh Masson, 25. Haldane Luscombe, 26. Adam Thompstone