Having accrued a 53 point lead from last week’s away tie, this could have been considered a ‘dead’ match. Nevertheless the faithful – or was it faithless – numbered over 4,000. For the players, an opportunity of a good run out and for some their chance on the bench. For the management, a chance to resolve the debate about who should play 10 in Burkey’s absence. Both FitzGerald and Gollings in line to see if they could fulfil the role.

The 3’o clock kick off and the same teams as stated in the programme ran out ready for another exciting and promising game at the Stoop. After a quick and furious start by both teams, Quins opened the scoring after only a minute on the clock. Quins ran from virtually their own line up the pitch demonstrating some great hands. Satala making a break and then off loading to Williams, a small help from Duncombe found Gollings with the ball in his hands and then with blistering speed found his way under the posts. Williams only had to slot the ball between the uprights and it was 7-0 Quins. The game in the opening 10 minutes was rather like sevens; quick hands, overlaps and pace shown by both teams. Caerphilly went over for their first score after 6 minutes: Williams not finding touch and then a break by Roddy Boobyer set Caerphilly up with a wide overlap allowing Gareth Jones to score. With their normal kicker Luke Richards out scrum half Allen Chiltern took over the kicking duties and missed a relatively simple conversion leaving the score at 7-5 Quins.

Quins next try followed quickly: Caerphilly going offside; Gollings kicked for touch and Quins took a lineout. Quick ball allowed Satala to fall 5 metres short of the line but only two phases later Seb FitzGerald, on his debut, scored under the post. Another simple conversion allowed Williams to add to his points tally for the season (14-5). Three minutes later another try, this time for Caerphilly pulling back some much needed points. After a knock on by Ace, Caerphilly found they had yet another scrum; they went blind and some good hands allowed space out wide. Not quite finished off but Quins were caught offside leaving a quick tap penalty and an overlap allowing Gareth Jones to go over for his second try. The conversion was missed (14-10).

The shining sun brought Quins their third try from a set piece scrum. All the backs apart from Gollings lined up on one side allowing a big gap to appear for Duncombe to go through with extreme pace. Drawing the man, leaving space for Gollings to find himself in the corner for his second try of the afternoon. Nathan converts from far out on the right (21-10).

Gollings firmly and unambiguously grounds the ball for a try. Pic: Simon Jones

With twenty one minutes gone a shoulder injury to Fuga meant he had to retire being replaced by the young Simon Miall with Ace moving to hooker. After Miall was penalised for not binding at a scrum Caerphilly followed up with eight phases of play and their next score seemed imminent when they unfortunately knocked on. Duncombe was then adjudged to have incorrectly fed the resulting scrum. The free kick that followed allowed Caerphilly’s second row Nic Rouse to score under the post with Chiltern converting (21-17). The remaining period before half time saw some mixed play of kicking and running at angles. Leonard was replaced by Starr just before half time.

During the interval several prizes were being given out for various things. Even I received one myself for my Mighty Quins poetry entry. A cheque for over £5,000 was also presented to the Whizz Kids charity.

The players resumed the second half with Laurent Gomez and Seb FitzGerald being replaced by Pablo Cardinelli and Matt Moore

Ace feeds the ball back to surprised looking Cardinelli. Pic: Simon Jones

The sun still in cloud and Caerphilly get their 4th try in the first minute of the second half. The number 8 Williams touching down. Still another conversion missed (these were starting to get costly for Caerphilly) leaving the score at 21-22. Caerphilly were now ahead. Gollings, who had moved to number 10, brought a bit more pace to the midfield area and some stability of territory with many exchange of kicks. Mark brought on fresh legs with Diprose and Duncombe being replaced by Beamand and Rudzki with still 30 minutes to go. With Diprose off, Jim Evans went to number 8 and a strong pick up from the back of the scrum led to him scoring a good try

Evans scores. Pic Simon Jones

Quins were back in front after 56 minutes. 28-22 after Williams converted. Everyone was trying to secure a good result – even the seagulls wanted to join in with the match flying low and looking for food. Quins found themselves with a penalty and, to the dislikes of the crowd, Williams went for goal. The crowd was even more upset after he missed the kick - his only miss of the afternoon.

Bill Davison had sustained an injury (diagnosed as a popped rib - but unsure how long he is going to be out for) and was replaced by Matt Powell who played flanker to join the ranks of other Quins backs suited to this role. I’m sure you can recall Craig Chalmers performance on the flank. Another penalty and another attempt at goal by Williams - this time he slots it home to put Quins 31-22 up with 13 minutes to play. However, Caerphilly did not let their heads drop and came back after bringing more fresh legs on. Quins’ lapses in concentration were getting longer and more frequent letting Caerphilly get a 5th try from their replacement Owain Ashman. Once again Chiltern misses the conversion (31-27). A Quins fan in front of me said that Caerphilly “Deserve to win it” and at times they did. They created more overlaps but were tackled into touch short of the line. The final whistle goes to Quins relief. Victory on aggregate 104-47

 Evans is apparently lifted single handedly by Jase. The Cheesmakers look on. Pic: Simon Jones

Evans knew it was not good - “We didn’t really play”, but he knows what Stade Francais are like “Huge, big, big game” but “looking forward to it”. What was wrong with the game? “Defence desperate all day”, “Caerphilly played better this week than last”, ”disappointingly flat today”. What did he think of Matt Powell at flanker “Fantastic”. Playerwise he mentioned FitzGerald, who took a blow to the head early on in the match, so he did not know what was going on and couldn’t call the moves. Codling and Will should be back next week, Wood in 2-3 weeks time.

Andrew Williams the Caerphilly number 8 talked about this week and last week. Last week “Underperformed”, “Definitely very, very disappointing” and what they needed from this week? “Get back on track”, “weren’t going to drop our heads”, “try to come away with a win”.

Tony Diprose knows it’s a going to be a hard couple of games for us. “ A crucial period, If we get some good results we’re up with the top 4 and if we get some bad results were mingling with relegation - it’s a key phase”.

So with the crowd satisfied with the win and the players exhausted has the Management any better information on who should be our back up 10? Unfortunately, Seb FitzGerald couldn’t claim to have been fairly tested following his blow to the head. After that he didn’t know what was going on around him - but he did show power and strength. FitzGerald demonstrated good handling and kicking skills. He also showed a good defensive role. Gollings is a different type of player showing pace, acceleration and agility, but is a very much one handed player only passing off his left hand throughout the second half. Ben showed many different attacking skills compared to FitzGerald but is only able to kick with his left foot. Gollings made a great saving tackle and hunted down the ball carrier at every opportunity. Personally I still think Slemen is our second 10 backed up with Nathan’s place kicking, since Nathan can kick equally as well from both sides of the pitch and with distance.

Once again we were poorly served by the referee. There were several instances of cowardly attacks by Caerphilly players on Quins players unable to defend themselves. My dad spotted both Greenstock and Gollings being hit whilst on the floor. Touch judges must intervene in these circumstances and not restrict themselves to just alerting the referee to forward passes! The amount of ball that was killed by Caerphilly forwards going over the ball, arriving at the breakdown from offside directions and being more physical than the Laws permit should have been addressed. It may have been the reason we held back on some of the tackles in the second half. I don’t blame the players if they felt they were not being protected by the referee!

Harlequins: N.Williams, R.Jewell, V.Satala, N.Greenstock, B.Gollings, S.FitzGerald (M.Moore 40mins), N.Duncombe (S.Beamand 49mins), J.Leonard (Capt.) (B.Starr 39mins), T.Fuga (S.Miall 21mins), L.Gomez (P.Cardinelli 40mins), B.Davison (M.Powell 64mins), J.Evans, A.Tiatia, L.Sherriff, T.Diprose (K.Rudzki 49mins)

Caerphilly: S.Tuiplutu, G.Lewis, R.Boobyer (B.Lloyd 74mins), S.Cox, R.Howells, J.Thomas (J.Murphy 53mins), A.Chiltern (S.Headington 74mins), L.Manning (G.Liddop 64mins), C.Ferris (Capt.) (F.Vunipola 64mins), R.Skuse, N.Rouse, N.Watkins (M.Workman 62mins), G.Jones, J.El-Abd (O.Ashman 72mins), A.Williams

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