By Hillary Carr
December 10 2003

So often have I resorted to analogies with the England campaign in Australia during the World Cup I run the risk of repeating myself; but the similarities between Quins Amateurs and England are apparent. We struggle to overcome the weaker opposition and yet regain our composure and resolve to grind out a win against teams at the top of our league. So it was last Saturday with another case of ‘winning ugly’ against Old Actonians, presently residing at No. 2 in our league table.

Playing ‘at home’ on the College Ground for the first time this season, into the wind in the first half, Harlequins gave good account of themselves, despite a lot of pressure from Old Actonians who tried unsuccessfully to convert that pressure into points missing a penalty on 10 minutes and two drop goal attempts on 14 and 33 minutes.

A real war of attrition was scrapped out, unmercifully, up front with Old Actonians giving away a succession of penalties, which eventually resulted in the no.11 being sent to the sin-bin for yet another deliberate offence. Quins tried to capitalize on the situation and on several occasions found themselves just short of the OA’s line, but then were repeatedly penalized for scrummaging offences.

As half-time approached Quins set up a rolling maul following a line-out 10 metres out; as the line beckoned, Stevens picked up the ball from the back of the ruck and the defense parted like the Red Sea to allow him to dive over from 5 metres. Missing the conversion, the teams turned round at half time with Quins 5-0 up.

The second half was as much of a ‘scrap’ as the first, and Quins put themselves under immense pressure after only 6 minutes when the OAs scored from a tapped penalty 5 metres out, and then kicked the conversion to lead 5-7.

With the wind behind us in the second half Quins enjoyed a wealth of possession and territory and should have made more use of the option to kick into the vacant spaces. Our line out was working well and the scrum was solid; the back line was strong in defense and in attack started to break through the opposition more often. That sustained pressure forced OAs to concede a penalty some 15 metres from the posts, which Eaton duly slotted home to give the Quins a one-point advantage, leading 8-7 with ten minutes remaining.

Our resilience and determination not to throw this game away at the end saw Quins through to a deserved victory through sheer guts and hard work and a great deal of relief at the final whistle.