- U21s trounce London Welsh U21s

15. Tom Williams
14. Chinedu Okolo
13. Tom Allen (c)
12. Tosh Masson
11. Neil McGovern
10. Adrian Jarvis
9. Max Evans
1. Gareth Rise
2. Cameron Dott
3. Reg Dejeger
4. Ross Boshier
5. Tom Parker
6. Gavin Hart
7. Chris Cracknell
8. Tom Guest

Replacements:
16. Ahmeed
17. Nazer
18. Creed
19. Rob Oughton
20. Tom Rees-Williams
21. Davenport
22. Shaun Crowley

The kick off was messy and the ball was knocked on, and it looked like the larger London Welsh pack would pose a problem – how wrong could I be. Quins were awarded a penalty and opted to kick to touch but it was missed and LW ran back, the defence was good and the ball turned over, LW were offside at the ruck 18m out and this time the kick to touch was good. Cameron Dott’s throw to the lineout was excellent and a rolling maul was set up which saw Chris Cracknell score. Jarvis’ kick was successful and Quins lead 7-0 after a few minutes.

LW had a scrum which was disrupted by the Quins pack (a recurring event for the rest of the afternoon), the backs sent the ball wide and recycled well getting ever closer to the line before a try was scored by Rise from close range on the left, the kick was missed to the right of the posts. 12-0.

Quins were awarded a scrum for a knock on and Evans passed the ball left to Adrian Jarvis who found space to score in the left hand corner, he failed to convert his own try. 17-0.

Quins kicked another penalty into the corner and a good lineout was followed by an excellent break by Jarvis again who passed the ball around his tackler to Guest who was supporting well and who scored again by the posts. This time the kick was successful, 24-0.

So far every time Quins had the ball they would score, it reminded us of the England v Romania game a couple of years ago.

The restart was taken by Parker and a rolling maul was set up, the ball was then passed to Tom Allan, to Tom Williams who scored, the kick by Jarvis was good, 31-0.

After the restart there was another excellent break by Tom Allan who was giving his opposite number all sorts of trouble all afternoon. Rice, the loosehead, went off with a shoulder injury to be replaced by Ahmeed

Jarvis made another break and sent a well timed pass to the blindside Hart who scored under the posts. Jarvis converted the try he had made, 38-0.

Parker took the restart again, something he excelled at all game, the ball was sent left to Allan who made a great break, passing to Williams who made more ground before passing to the wing McGovan who scored in the corner. The kick from wide was missed very badly, 43-0.

Allan made a good break through the right and was tackled but the ball was recycled left across the pitch and sent back right again when Allan came through on the crash ball to score, the kick was missed, 48-0.

Quins had a 5m scrum, the ball was taken well by Evans who passed to the wing, McGovan, who scored again, the kick from wide out on the left was missed. 53-0.

As the rain started to fall there was a great break by Tom Guest who passed to Parker who looked like he would have a pretty clear run in but the pass was deemed to be slightly forward. The two scrums that were awarded to LW were both disrupted by the smaller but much more powerful Quins pack. Quins stole the ball and Cracknell scored again, the kick was good and the sides went in 60-0 at half time.

The half time debate was about how good the youngsters were (well they had scored ten tries in the first half), why the West Stand Bar wasn’t open and if the scoreboard had been being used would it have to have a third digit for the home side’s score by the end of the game.

The half backs, Max Evans and Adrian Jarvis were pulled off by the management and were replaced by Rob Oughton & Tom Rees-Williams.

A good break by Williams was supported well by Cracknell who passed to Masson to Allan who scored, Rees-Williams missed the kick, 65-0.

Some of the London Welsh pack were getting frustrated at this point and became a tad feisty but the outbreaks of hostility were very small affairs and didn’t mar the game at all. The hooker, Dott, and wing, McGovan, were pulled off and replaced by Nazer and Crowley. Soon after Parker was taken off and Creed went on.

The play was a little scrappier now - all credit to London Welsh who didn’t give up all afternoon even though they were on the end of a pasting.

Then the centre Masson made another break through the centre and ran half the length of the pitch before offloading to Williams who did a lovely little reverse pass to Crowley who was charging up in support to score. Rees-Williams converted, 72-0.

Quins got the ball at the restart but the break was stopped – “how about a report title of ‘London Welsh in Tackling Shock!’” was suggested much to the merriment of the crowd.

Allan was then taken off and replaced by Davenport and soon after Parker came back on to replace Guest.

The Quins scrum continued to dominate and some great play from a quick tap saw Crowley doing a neat little reverse pass which sent the ball right to Okolo on the wing who ran in to score, the kick was missed from wide out, 77-0.

Quins seemed to relax a bit too much now and they allowed London Welsh to break through the centre and it looked like they may score until a mix up lead to crossing for which they were penalised. The LW blindside came off injured.

Quins kicked to touch but lost the ball from the maul after the lineout, LW kicked downfield where Crowley caught it on the halfway and countered before passing to Williams who spotted a gap and scored in the right hand corner, the kick was good and Quins were leading 84-0.

The lock Boshier came off but no replacement could be found until Dott turned up a couple of minutes later and was sent back on.

London Welsh showed a lot of spirit and did not give up and they were rewarded just before full time with a try by Michael Bridge, they missed the conversion and the game ended 84-5.

What can be said about such a one sided game, well the pack were fantastic, the catching of the restarts by Parker was consistently good, the scrummaging was fantastic with the Quins front row causing their opposition no end of trouble all afternoon. Max Evans looked very good at scrum half (although he did have a fantastic base to work from), the back row were all over the pitch and the lines of running and support from the whole team was a great delight to see. Although Jarvis missed a few conversions his openfield play and kicking from had were excellent and the centre partnership of Allan and Masson (who were being watched from the stands by Reay and Barratt) were just too fast and powerful for the exiles’ midfield. Okolo had a fairly quiet game compared with the other wing McGovern and Tom Williams at fullback showed great skill and speed again. The replacements fitted in well and Crowley took his tries well.

With this great result and the U19s’ 56-15 victory over Middlesex U19s on the Sunday we can hope that the future’s bright, the future’s magenta, French grey, sky blue, chocolate brown, bright green and black!