Played on an undulating surface under lights that were barely sufficient for a training evening, Quins had little difficulty in overcoming a Saracens team which despite the presence in the side of several first team players, including at least three internationals in Benazzi, Little and Craig Quinnell, lacked invention and penetration. The Quins defence was mostly solid. The line-outs were won, including a number on
their opponents ball and the scrum was mostly solid.

The refereeing left a little to be desired and there were several Lander-like errors. A mark was given for a catch at least three metres outside the twenty-two; scrums that wheeled almost 360 degrees were allowed to play on. Yellow cards were flourished to two on each side, Karl Rudski and Simon Miall from Quins and Abdel Benazzi and Ryan Peacey for Saracens.

Almost immediately from the start, in the face of the speedy following up of the kick-off Saracens conceded a penalty which Seb Fitzgerald converted. Little struck a penalty for Saracens to level the score only two minutes later. Quins began to exert the pressure which they maintained throughout apart from a couple of isolated occasions when Saracens broke through to score. After only some ten minutes play a good spell of pressure resulted in a try from Darryl Griffin which was converted by Fitzgerald.

The inevitable minor fracas broke out between Quinell and Rudzki and continued to simmer gently until Rudzki was sinbinned. What appeared to be a good try by Ugo Monye was deemed to have been obtained by a forward pass. Play became a mid-field battle with Quins emulating the massive defence that the first team had shown against Newcastle.

In the injury time at the end of the first half a deliberate knock-on by a Saracen player in the face of a speedy Quins thrust for the line down the right hand side resulted in a scrum from the penalty and a rolling maul which produced a try for Gregg Botterman, borrowed from Saracens for the evening because we are short of hookers! The conversion was missed and at half time Quins led comfortably 15 – 3.

Shortly after the restart, a tapped penalty to which Quins were adjudged not to have retreated 10 metres was retaken as a scrum which was disrupted by Quins and followed by accidental offside. A further scrum resulted from which the ball was passed wide to the right to give Haughton an easy run to the line. The conversion was missed. A further penalty kicked by Little brought the score to 15 – 11.

Now substitutions began on both sides but without available details of substitutes on the team sheet. Two more penalties kicked by Fitzgerald (?) brought the score to a satisfactory 21 – 11 win.

Scotty’s assessment was wholly justified and it was also notable that only one Quin was over 22 years of age. There is clearly much potential in the up and coming young players in the squad.

Teams:
HARLEQUINS
Tom Williams; Ugo Monye; Tom Allen; Andrew Reay; Max Willcocks; Seb Fitzgerald; Matthew Powell; Sam Walton; Gregg Botterman; Jon Dawson; Karl Rudzki; Simon Miall; Darryl Griffin; Chris Cracknell; Kai Horstman.

SARACENS
Adryan Winnan; Richard Haughton; Ben Johnston; Paddy O’Gorman; Gerald Arasa; Nicky Little; Brett Sparg; Aston Croall; Matt Cairns; Col Hannan; Craig Quinnell; Abdel Benazzi; Chris Daubney; Ryan Peacey; Daniel Legge.

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