We travelled down to Virginia Park to play Caerphilly in the hope of a nice away win and a big enough margin of victory to set us up nicely for the return leg next week. In what must be a first in recent times, both sides were as per programme and Tony Diprose led the side out for the 2.30 kick-off. The home side started things off by kicking with what little wind there was and after just a minute, we were penalised and Luke Richards (the home fly half) banged it over from 50 metres out (2mins Caerphilly 3 Quins 0) . From the kick-off, the ball was worked to Ben Gollings and Bill Satala broke through before passing on to Nathan Wiliams who completed the run to the line to put the visitors in front after just 3 minutes. His conversion attempt from half way between touch and the posts was successful although it did go over with the help of the right-hand upright (4mins Caerphilly 3 Quins 7). Two minutes later, Satala broke through some flimsy tackling, was held up but a knock-on from Caerphilly led to a scrum. From this, Ben Gollings was able to send Matt Moore in for a 22 metre run to the line and a try at the posts which Williams successfully converted (8mins Caerphilly 3 Quins 14).

Nathan takes a long kick (pic Simon Jones)

The Caerphilly defence was being split on a regular basis now and if we continued to play as we were, a big score was on the cards. A penalty led to a Caerphilly line out on our 22 but when they messed up, Moore was on hand to pick up and come away with the ball. As he put in a kick ahead, he was barged off the ball (somewhat unfairly I thought) and the move petered out. After 12 minutes, as the home side attacked, a chip ahead ran into touch in goal but the referee was already playing advantage and awarded them a penalty. Up stepped Richards and from 35 metres out and 15 metres in from touch, made no mistake (13mins Caerphilly 6 Quins 14).

On 14 minutes, Pablo Cardinalli received some treatment and was back in action in no time at all. When the home side were awarded a penalty 25 metres out, Richards chose to kick to the corner from where they tried to get over the line. We stopped two drives and won a scrum but allowed our hosts to wheel it and we were back on the defensive. When we were penalised again, the referee lectured Tony Diprose and told him to get his men in order. Caerphilly were coming more into the game but our defence remained solid and this attack was repelled but Williams missed touch when they were penalised at a lineout. From this position, the Welsh put in a kick to the corner where Moore and Williams exchanged passes, Moore ran 50 metres and returned a pass to Williams who was backing up and his well placed kick through was hacked on by Pat Sanderson. Unfortunately, Sanderson was correctly adjudged by the referee and the linesman to have lost the ball as he attempted to pick-up and dive over the line. The attempted clearance kick from the resulting 5 metre scrum was caught by Williams and the charge into Caerphilly territory was led by Rob Jewell. We were awarded a penalty and Williams put the ball into the corner. Diprose caught the lineout ball and from the ruck, Nick Duncombe went on an angled run to the corner on the blind-side for an excellently worked try. From the touchline, Nathan Williams was spot on with his third conversion (26mins Caerphilly Quins 21).

'don't tell me..' (pic: Simon Jones)

After 29 minutes an excellent multi-passing movement featuring an exquisite reverse pass from Nick Greenstock to Tani Fuga almost led to our fourth try but Caerphilly had to give away a penalty to survive. We couldn’t convert the pressure into more points and turned the ball over. The home side passed the ball along the line and Sione Toipulotu sent Sam Cox (their right winger) on a 70 metre run to the try line. The covering Satala almost had him but Caerphilly’s first try was on the board. Richards converted to just about keep them in the game (32mins Caerphilly 13 Quins 21). In the ten minutes remaining before the interval, we made sure there would be no Welsh victory as, straight from the kick-off, we attacked in wave after wave and Fuga and Diprose sent Jim Evans on a run from the 22 for our fourth try. Nathan Williams made no mistake from ten metres in from touch (35mins Caerphilly 13 Quins 28).

At this point, Simon Miall (19) came on to replace Pat Sanderson (7) and proceeded to give an impressive display. After two more near misses, we ran a penalty deep in Caerphilly territory, Duncombe sent a pass out to Gollings who sent Moore in for his second try of the game with a long pass. Williams sent his conversion over from almost in front on the 22 and were we stretching away as half time approached (39mins Caerphilly 13 Quins 35). The home side made their first change when Richard Skuse (20) came on for Darren Sweet (3). We were now in full flow and were attacking from everywhere and the half finished with Toipulotu having to touch down with Greenstock bearing down on him. Half Time 42mins Caerphilly 13 Quins 35.

Quins were in the home 22 for the opening minute of the second half but were penalised at a ruck and Caerphilly cleared their lines. After 44 minutes, Fuga received some treatment but he was okay. The Welsh put in a drive but turned the ball over in our 22 and Moore put in a massive kick ahead, chased it and tackled the home full back. The ball was cleared but back we came and Gollings (having a good game at fly half) attacked, passed to Nathan Williams who broke a tackle before passing to Jewell who ran in for try number six. This was in the corner and Williams missed his first kick of the day (46min Caerphilly 13 Quins 40). Caerphilly attacked from the restart and were on our 22 when Diprose almost intercepted; Moore did and ran back on a typical weaving run of some 75 metres. He cut in from touch, beat three defenders and passed inside to Luke Sherriff for a try next to the posts. Williams put his conversion over and we were scoring faster than I could put pen to paper! Once the replacements started I would be in real trouble!! (48mins Caerphilly 13 Quins 47).

On 49 minutes, Neil Watkins (21) came on for Nic Rouse (4) and a minute later, Ryan Howells burst through our defence from close range to finish off a good attack to register Caerphilly’s second try which Richards again converted (51mins Caerphilly 20 Quins 47). Straight away, Bill Davison (4) was replaced by Karl Rudzki (18) and a minute later Caerphilly replaced their hooker (Feao Uunipola) with Christian Ferris (19). The home side attacked well for a long period and the ball passed through a number of hands before a kick through went dead and we had a scrum 30 metres from our line. From here, Gollings put in a big kick and Jewell chased it but the home full back cleared his lines (after a dodgy pass to him). On 56 minutes, the full back was replaced by Justin Thomas (16) and three minutes later, a bad clearance (which went straight up in the air) was tapped back by Satala. Williams picked up and set up Duncombe for a clear run to the line from the 22. His try under the posts was easily converted by Williams (59mins Caerphilly 20 Quins 54). I was getting worried as we hadn’t scored for eight minutes!

A minute later, Joseph El-Abd (7) was replaced by Andrew Williams (22) then, after 61 minutes, Nick Duncombe departed and was replaced by Scott Bemand (20) (pronounced beMOND by the announcer). As the Welsh attacked again, the ball went loose and rolled over our line. The newly appeared Bemand put in a good clearance kick and Moore and others put in a chase. Caerphilly messed up again, we got the ball back and Diprose put in an excellent grubber kick and Gollings was able to chase through unopposed to score by the posts. Nathan put the ball between the posts again and we were past sixty – hooray (65mins Caerphilly 20 Quins 61).

'It's behind you!' Backs in the maul. (pic: Binky)

We were putting in a good performance but, just as I was trying to think of something else to write, Caerphilly made another replacement! After 66 minutes, Allen Chiltern (9) was replaced by Scot Headington (17) and the thought had gone! Things weren’t helped by the announcer only telling us who was coming on!! I make a personal plea here to the IRB to cut down on the number of replacements used in a game.

Where was I, oh yes, we were about to score again. A good 50 metre clearance kick from Gollings and good pressure by him on the defenders led to a sliced clearance kick. From the lineout, we began a rolling maul only for the referee to run round behind the posts to award us a penalty try. Nathan couldn’t miss and his ninth conversion sailed between the posts (68mins Caerphilly 20 Quins 68). From the restart, the ball was won by us and Gollings put in another excellent clearance kick to the half way line. On 70 minutes, Lee Manning (1) was replaced by Geraint Liddon (18) as the East Stand erupted into “The Mighty Quinn” and try as they did, Caerphilly couldn’t make any more impression on our lead. Their supporters slowly gave up the ghost and started to depart on their short journeys home.

After 75 minutes, Caerphilly’s fly half departed injured but, as they had already used all seven substitutes, they were left with 14 men on the pitch. When the game resumed, we had a scrum from which Bemand broke and passed to Miall who completed the last eight metres with a defender hanging onto him to score our eleventh try. Williams couldn’t add the conversion but we had safely passes the seventy point barrier (76mins Caerphilly 20 Quins 73).

Four minutes later, Skuse was sent to the sin bin for foul play (chants of “OFF! OFF! OFF!” came from the Quins supporters but the referee stopped short of the red card). Against thirteen men, we failed to add to our 53 point lead and lost Fuga to the sin bin a minute later after a dubious tackle (which I didn’t see because I was writing down another pearl of wisdom in my notebook at the time!). When a scrum was called seconds before the end, Jon Dawson (16) came on to replace Diprose and Manning came back for Caerphilly (I’m not even sure that anyone went off for them) – this last episode was all too much for me and I was glad when the referee blew the final whistle!! Full Time 84 mins Caerphilly 20 Quins 73.

Teams:- Caerphilly – Sione Toipulotu, Sam Cox (1t), Jarrad Murphy, Ryan Howells (1t), Geraint Lewis, Luke Richards (2pg2c), Allen Chiltern, Lee Manning, Feao Uunipola, Darren Sweet, Nic Rouse, Paul Jones, Gareth Jones, Joseph El-Abd and Mark Workman – reps 16 Justin Thomas (15), Scot Headington (9), 18 Geraint Liddon (1), 19 Christian Ferris (2), 20 Richard Skuse (sin bin) (3), 21 Neil Watkins (4), 22 Andrew Williams (7).

Quins – Nathan Williams (1t9c), Rob Jewell (1t), Viliame Satala, Nick Greenstock, Matt Moore (2t), Ben Gollings (1t), Nick Duncombe (2t), Bruce Starr, Tani Fuga (sin bin), Pablo Cardinalli, Bill Davison, Jim Evans (1t), Luke Sherriff (1t), Pat Sanderson and Tony Diprose (C) – reps 16 Jon Dawson (8), 18 Karl Rudzki (4), 19 Simon Miall (1t) (7), 20 Scott Bemand (9) and a penalty try.

This was an excellent performance from a Quins side missing a number of first choice players – had they all played, the score would have been well over 100 and this might be surpassed for the very first time by a Quins 1st XV on Saturday. I thought that we played well and after all, you can only beat what is put in front of you. Seventy three points are not to be sniffed at and I for one thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Virginia Park. The good old Welsh weather returned today and it absolutely chucked it down all day!!

Afterwards, Mark Ring (Caerphilly Head Coach) said that he was disappointed with the performance of a number of his players and it was important to get things right before next week. He also said that the standard of Welsh rugby was not good at the moment. John Kingston on the other hand had the easy job of speaking about the Quins performance. He didn’t think it had been a good performance from the point of view of a coach as we had got involved in a game which became very loose. He said that Ben Gollings had played a reasonable game at fly half but was very definitely a stop-gap as both Slemen and Burke were injured at the moment. He was also very pleased with the improvements made by Luke Sherriff, Simon Miall, Jim Evans, Chris Bell and all the other young players at the club – this was a big plus for the Quins and boded well for the future. He finished by saying that he wanted to make sure that next week the team gave a good, solid, professional performance for the home fans.

And finally……a few facts on the game

1) This was our biggest ever win in Wales.

2) Nathan Williams becomes only the third Quins player to score nine conversions in a game (Dan Lambert in 1909 and Paul Challinor in 1996 being the other two) but he was still four short of the record.

3) This was the first time we had scored 73 points in a game.

4) This was the eighteenth highest score in our history.

5) This was our highest score in a cup or league game since we defeated Thurrock in January 2000 (88-0).

6) This was our biggest win in European competitions.

  
Quins triumphant (pic: Binky)

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS