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Quins Close Door On Avon Ladies
By Viks November 10 2003
Thanks to Budget car hire who sponsored the team minibus, Harlequin Ladies travelled to Avon on Sunday for their fifth league game of the season.
The game was a scrappy affair, however, it was Quins who set their foundation early by scoring in the eighth minute when number 15, Alex Burbidge, popped back inside to flyhalf Dani Knight, who blushed off the defence to score underneath the posts & the convert her own try.

Avon has a compact defence and frequently showed areas where, unusually, Quins were found wanting at the breakdown, taking the gloss off other areas in which the forwards excelled. Avon were consistently pushed backwards in the scrum and it was Quins' clininqueal scrummaging which proved to be the max factor, allowing them to dominate. Dani Knight's boots were very influential though as she kicked them out of trouble on a number of occasions. Avon did not appear to create many chances themselves but rather made the most of Quins' errors but unfortunately were not able to breach their sharpened defence.

Pushing deep into Avon's 22, Quins recycled the ball numerous times before spinning out wide to their man of the match, Rachael Bullingham, on the
wing, who scored in the corner with a try which highlighted how strong Quins support play usually is. Avon retaliated by encroaching into Quins' half on a couple of occasions but lacked the handling skills to get over the line, leaving the half time score 0-12.

The format of the second half was to follow that of the first, with Avon punishing Quins' mistakes but not quite able to get over their line. After sixty minutes, Harlequins' forwards began to shine more in attack and kept the ball in the chanel, recycling well using rucks and mauls to put Avon on the back foot. Pippa Butt then drove over the line to take the score to 0-17, which was out of Avon's reach.

Both sides kept up the pressure but were unable to turn this into points in the last twenty minutes. Avon made some effective attacking runs, however, yet again their poor handling let them down. Quins continued to over-power up front, stealing the vast majority of Avon's scrums and using pickups from the base of the scrum to great effect with number 7, Laura Quinn supporting in the number 8's shadow consistently well. Quins' defence held firm until the final whistle, leaving Avon Ladies nothing to show for their hard work.

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