A strong wind blowing from north to south plus the very low sun made conditions deceptively difficult, but to offer such mitigation to both sides for the awful game that followed is to be very generous indeed.

Quins showed three changes from last week, two enforced by injury with Josh and Ace replaced by Tani and Andy Reay. Rob Jewell slipped to the bench to be replaced by Simon Keogh who had given a couple of brief but livewire showings in the previous two weeks. Gloucester gave a delayed debut to Duncan McRae, who had an eventful spell at Saracens a few years back, at ten

The first quarter of the game was evenly contested with Quins’ pack showing some control and some multi-phase possession. After Paul Burke’s kick off Quins quickly gained possession and recycled several times, although they didn’t gain a great deal of territory from this stage of the play. After numerous phases Burke released Reay, on to Mel Deane who found Ugo Monye in limited space about twenty metres out in the north east corner. James Simpson-Daniel did well to hold on to his opposing winger and Ugo was eventually penalised about ten metres out for not releasing. Moments later Simpson-Daniel had some space to attack from just inside his own half but was well tackled by Simon Keogh.

Whilst the teams were relatively evenly matched at this stage Quins were clearly have trouble with referee Steve Leyshon’s interpretation of legal scrummaging and the first of many penalties was awarded against Laurent Gomez on the far side in front of the West stand about forty metres out. Henry Paul’s kick, perhaps nudged off course by the strong wind, rattled the right hand post. Andre Vos collected and Burke cleared. As time drifted to near the end of the first quarter the first of a series of injuries disrupted Quins’ play. After a lengthy time being treated, Tani left the pitch to be replaced by James Hayter. Tani’s knee injury appears to be a nasty one and Mike Scott, Quins’ team manager, estimated that he could be out for six weeks.

A short phase of kicking followed, Paul putting in a couple of good kicks from hand and gaining considerable distance from a penalty. Burke had put a neat grubber through but the movement fizzled out.

Burkey in action (Andy Hancock)

Shortly afterwards Ugo left the field with a knee injury, not serious, and Vos left for some treatment to a nasty facial cut. Rob Jewell was instantly tested with a steepling kick to gather over his shoulder and looking straight into the sun. It wasn’t that surprising that Marcel Garvey nicked it, but the move came to nothing thanks to poor handling and good defence.

Vos patched up (Andy Hancock)

The game was now settling into a pattern, the scrums were quite evenly contested although they were regularly penalised. The lineouts were a bit of a shambles. An observation, that is probably very unfair on my part, is that not all the moves appeared to have been practised with Hayter that much. The throws either went long, and tidy possession rarely followed or an over complicated short ploy was used that twice lead to a knock on from Hayter and never gained any significant yardage.

Glos hold on, as a short ball back is knocked back to Hayter Binky

 The longer the half went on the scrappier the game got with neither side making inroads into the other’s defence.

A rare lineout win for Evans (Andy Hancock)

Although Gloucester’s backs were handling the ball more slickly that Quins. Eventually Paul kicked a penalty, having missed three, to give Gloucester the half time lead 0-3. Burke had had a couple of penalties within kicking range but the strong wind meant that he had declined them.

The second half just got worse and worse. There were so many talented ballplayers on the park and it was amazing that such an awful game could be served up to the crowd numbered at 6,223. Few players caught the eye and those that did were from Gloucester. Definite signs that the McRae - Paul partnership could well work, Jon Goodridge, their young fullback, showed some pace and good touches and Robert Todd was a feisty influence in midfield.

For Quins it was a day at the office to forget. Ben Willis had a bit of a shocker at scrum half with some wayward passing, Burke deprived of decent ball had limited impact on the game and our backs never looked like scoring a try after Ugo’s departure. As their play got increasing desperate, Todd intercepted, in fact read the situation well, to score the game’s only try under the posts in the dying moments of added on time. Paul converted to add to the other two second half penalties he had scored.

Bad Day at the Office (Andy Hancock)

I’m not sure what positive points can be taken from the game for Quins. Ugo’s injury is not serious and he should be back next week. But Tani could be out for a long while and the injury list is mounting with only Chris Bell and big Karl close to fitness.

The press conference that followed was almost as dire as the game. There was little that Quins’ Head Coach and Chief Executive could say about such a performance. Asked whether it was the worse game in his time at Quins, after a long pause he replied “No!”. He bemoaned our lack of ball and that the line out had fallen part.

He thought the injuries had disrupted the flow and was a little bemused by some of the penalties awarded against our forwards. He mentioned that the basics weren’t in place. When one journo enquired why not, the prompt reply was “Good question”. I asked whether Quins would now search for a replacement for Simon Miall, Evans replied in typically cryptic form of “Possibly”! He emphasised that we didn’t deserve to win and laughed off one journo’s question about lack of invention with a retort about it being hard to be inventive if you haven’t got the ball.

Pat struggling to keep the ball (Andy Hancock)

A worrying thing for Quins is that several of their injured players are the line breakers and that the alternatives are all in a different mould. A very depressed looking Andre Vos could be spied in the East Stand bar, I wonder what was going through his mind?

The next game up is Sale at home, traditionally the worse game of the season. Do you remember the narrowing of the pitch last year? Forty five nil! And that awful game four or five years ago when Liley almost hit the corner flag from under the posts? That game was scoreless for about an hour! Ho hum!

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