More than 51,000 people had turned up to see what should have been a spectacle of excellent rugby, the party in the West Car Park with the live bands and tents from the four clubs was an excellent start, the carnival atmosphere was in full swing.

From the look of the ground few Wasps or Saracens fans had decided to stay outside for the first game. Everything was in place for an excellent game of rugby, sadly that wasn’t what we were to get. 

The first game of the season is usually a scrappy affair, Quins v London Irish games are also scrappy affairs for some reason, players playing at Twickenham are generally more nervous than usual so various factors combined to give us the disappointing spectacle that ensued.

Before the kick off there was a perfectly observed minute’s silence for the dead of the school siege in Beslan. (If anyone is interested the International Red Cross are providing support for the hospitals in Beslan and Vladikavkaz, you can donate money to the Red Cross through their website) 

Andy Dunne kicked off and Ugo Monye charged up and challenged for the ball. Quins were penalised at the first lineout of the game for having too many players in the line, this was a decision that Wayne Barnes apologised for later because he hadn’t realised that Andre Vos was acting as scrum half.

London Irish certainly started the stronger of the two teams, their recycling was good but good defence from Quins stopped them from making too many yards. The first quarter was a mixture of LI being stronger in the set pieces, Quins doing well at the breakdown and turning over ball, Karl Rudzki, starting an excellent performance which made him Quins’ man of the match by a long way, tidying up a lot of loose ball, and Quins giving away far too many silly penalties. The first points on the board came, not surprisingly, from the boot of Barry Everitt, he struck a penalty from about 45m in front of the posts (3-0, 11 mins).

Monye won the ball at the restart and, not for the last time, Quins took a poor decision and the ball was chipped over the defence but too deep to be of any use and the ball was touched down for a 22m drop out.

Everitt had a chance to increase the home side’s lead a few minutes later when he had an easier kick than the first but he pushed it wide of the uprights. Another silly penalty was awarded  to London Irish for coming round the side of a ruck, the ball was kicked to touch and LI came close to scoring on the left through Appleford, as LI sent the ball across midfield Ugo Monye sped forward and came so close to an interception that would have undoubtedly would have brought him a 70m trot to the line to score but sadly he couldn’t hold on to the ball. 

Poor ball retention was something that plagued both sides throughout the game, often when a chance was going begging.

The water break after 20 minutes seemed to inspire the Quins team and they came back into the game, Deane made a couple of breaks, Rudzki made a good interception, Vos charged down a kick from Everitt and So’oialo looked sharp but nothing came of the chances made. A new backs move saw Ugo taking the ball at pace from deep with a gap in front of him but he was just tap tackled and the move broke down.

A lineout to Rudzki and a rolling maul started by Horstmann led to a penalty to Quins for hands in the ruck but instead of kicking for the posts Dunne kicked for touch, the quick throw to the front of the lineout was tapped back to Fuga by Rudzki but unfortunately the tap was forward and again a chance went.

Ugo Monye again made good yards up the left and he had three me outside him with only one person to beat, LI’s new signing, Mike Catt. Ugo backed himself but Catt caught him with a high tackle and yet another chance went begging. The penalty was kicked to touch but Strudwick, who caused Quins’ lineout a lot of problems all day, poached the ball. 

Another great 50m run by Monye came to nothing when he was tackled into touch after he was fed with a beautifully weighted pass from Gavin Duffy.

Quins were awarded a free kick after London Irish took too long to throw the ball in at a lineout and Monye and Horstmann took the ball over the half way line only for Casey to go over the top and prevent the ball from coming out, Dunne made no mistake with the kick and the scores were tied on 3-3 in the third minute of injury time. Everitt put LI back in front three minutes later when Vos was penalised for coming in at the side of a ruck, the score remained 6-3 at half-time.

The teams came out for the second half amongst a cacophony of sound from the loudspeakers, the temperature was rising in the stadium, but the crowd were surprisingly flat.

Quins started the better, the ball was taken up by Tiatia, Fuga, Dawson and Dunne made a great break before he was high tackled and this time the referee decided that Everitt had to go to the bin. Dunne opted to kick to touch rather than take the easy penalty. Rudzki caught Fuga’s throw and there were a number of pick and drives before another penalty was given for hands in the ruck. Quins opted for a tap move but the move broke down and the ball was stolen, Steve So’oialo chased hard and he forced Catt’s kick into touch in goal, Quins still had a great attacking position with a 5m scrum. Hardwick immediately took his boot off to waste time, but Mr Barnes just stood over him and said, take your time, I’ve stopped the clock and I’ll start it again when you’re ready. The ball was lost at the back of the scrum when it bobbled out of Horstmann’s control then Quins were penalised for offside and London Irish were let off the hook.

Horstmann covered back and collected a long kick ahead but he was forced to kick the ball out just 10m from the Quins line. LI’s lineout was working well and they fed the ball to Catt who came close to scoring and for the first time in the game a chance wasn’t missed as Appleford stretched for the line to score. With Everitt off the pitch Catt slotted the conversion and LI took a ten point lead. 13-3, 53 mins.

After the restart Quins were awarded a penalty for not binding, the ball was kicked to touch and Fuga hit Miall with his throw, Greenwood took the ball up the middle, was well supported by Worsley and Duffy but instead of keeping the ball in hand Duffy decided to chip through, not for the first time the kick was too strong and Armitage had the simple task of hacking the ball into touch in goal for a 22m drop out.

After 17 minutes of the second half Jones replaced Worsley and Molitika replaced Tiatia (although he was announced as Winters). Another replacement was made during the water break in the second half when Staunton replaced Dunne at fly half.

Molitika made yards the first time he got his hands on the ball even though he was dragging some defenders with him but the ball wasn’t protected well enough at the breakdown and LI flyhacked the ball downfield. After 25 minutes Fuga was pulled off by the management and Hayter replaced him.

A number of penalties were awarded to Quins in quick succession for not releasing, not rolling away and for kicking the ball away after being penalised, Staunton got his first ZP points for Quins kicking an easy penalty, the deficit was cut, 13-6, 69 minutes.

Staunton was back in action soon after when he put a beautifully weighted chip through the LI defence that allowed Greenwood to run onto it at pace, Will gathered the ball but it was knocked out of his hands in a tackle and again a chance was lost.

A good attack by Staunton, Molitika and Horstmann was going well and might have gone better as it swept towards the left touch line had Ugo Monye been in position but he was being treated for cramp about 50m behind play, Staunton decided to kick for the corner and the weight on the kick was perfect bouncing just yards inside the line. Tom Williams came on to replace Ugo Monye on 73 minutes.

Staunton cut the deficit further when Li were penalised for offside at a kick, his kick went straight through the middle even though he had to re-place the ball twice. 13-9, 75 minutes. Things were looking hopeful for Quins even though the play was still very scrappy, they looked a lot fitter than the London Irish side, would Quins get another win in the dying minutes? 

The answer came back a resounding “NO” as a complete lapse of concentration in Quins defence at a ruck allowed Sackey an easy score with just a couple of minutes of normal time left to go. Everitt’s kick hit the posts. 18-9, 39 minutes.

Quins had possession in the LI half but the play was too lateral, Greenwood again decided to chip through the defence rather than opting to keep the ball in hand, Molitika chased up the right wing but couldn’t get to the ball in time, but Quins were awarded a penalty for offside, Staunton again slotted the kick easily, this was to be the final score of the game, 18-12.

So what can Quins take from the game, not an awful lot would be my opinion, it was a sloppy game between two sides that didn’t play well. For the majority of the game it looked like 30 individuals playing rather than two teams.

The set pieces weren’t good from Quins and the ball retention in the tackle was poor which lead to few multiple phases of possession. But even so a number of good scoring chances were made, on another day they may have been converted into points.

Karl Rudzki had a fine game tidying up a lot of loose ball, working hard in defence and taking the ball up well. Deane made some good breaks as did Monye. So’oialo started well before going off the ball and Vos was his usual dependable self. 

At the press conference Gary Gold, London Irish’s head coach, said he was please with the result, it always matters how you win, Quins Irish games are always scrappy affairs and it’s nice to be on the right side of one for a while.  But if it’s a scrappy game from both sides you want to end up being on the winning side. When asked if he thought this was the start of better home form for London Irish he said that it felt off calling this game a home game, it certainly didn’t feel like one. Our forwards dominated the scrums and lineouts and stopped their drives but we need to be more imaginative in loose play. 

He went on to say ‘The Double Header is a fantastic idea, and I’m not only saying that because we won. The buzz leading up to the game was fantastic, I don’t know how you can not want to play this game at Twickenham in what is probably the best stadium in the world, in three or four years it will be selling out and it should certainly continue.’

‘It’s taking Catt time to settle in, he’s been playing with the same people for 11 or 12 years so it’s taking him time to settle in with the new players around him. We took him off as a precaution, he had cramp and you have to look after him, but we were always going to bring Nils on.’ 

Evans came into the room looking not surprisingly disappointed. He explained ‘We can’t really take much out of that game, from memory the penalty count was 6-0 against us in the first quarter and it’s difficult to play when it’s like that, two or three of the penalties and that meant that we didn’t get any momentum. We dominated the second quarter and had a number of good chances but our finishing was poor. We were quite strong at the start of the second half, we kicked to the corner a couple of times which was the right thing to do at the time and we allowed them to score when they were down to 14 men which was probably the pivotal moment of the game. Having said that I thought we’d still come back and nick it but our ball retention was poor, in fact it wasn’t great for the whole game. The quality of ball we got wasn’t great so there wasn’t any flow to our game. So not a particularly good performance really.’

‘I was very disappointed by the way we played but leaving the score aside the Double Header is a terrific idea. It’s a great advertisement for the game with the four sets of fans mingling and having a great time. Whoever’s idea it was it’s a great idea.’ 

‘Ugo only went off with cramp, Dafydd probably won’t be playing next week, George probably won’t either, the only player who might come back for next week is Diprose.’

‘I thought Karl Rudzki had a reasonable game and that Steven So’oialo started well even though he made a couple of errors later on, I thought that Will Greenwood apart from a couple of errors had a good game, we just didn’t quite function today. I thought London Irish looked completely out on their feet with twenty minutes to go and I thought we’d nick it’.

All in all it was a disappointing start for Quins after such a good end to last season. The team need to work on some basic skills, ball retention and the lineout to be in with a good chance of winning next week against Northampton Saints.

Scores

London Irish
Tries: Appleford, Sackey
Conversion: Catt
Penalties: Everitt (2) 
Yellow Card: Everitt

NEC Harlequins
Penalties: Dunne, Staunton (3)

NEC Harlequins
Mike Worsley (Ceri Jones, 57 mins), Tani Fuga (James Hayter, 65 mins), Jon Dawson, Karl Rudzki, Simon Miall, Ace Tiatia (Maama Molitika, 57 mins), Andre Vos, Kai Horstmann, Steven So’oialo, Andy Dunne (Jeremy Staunton, 60 mins), Simon Keogh, Mel Deane, Will Greenwood, Ugo Monye (Tom Williams, 72 mins), Gavin Duffy.
Replacements James Hayter, Ceri Jones, Luke Sherriff, Roy Winters , Maama Molitik, Jeremy Staunton, Tom Williams

London Irish
Neal Hatley, Adrian Flavin (Robbie Russell, 66 mins), Rob Hardwick (Pierre Durrant, 79 mins), Ryan Strudwick (Nick Kennedy, 64 mins), Bob Casey, Paul Gustard (Phil Murphy, 55 mins), Kieron Dawson, Kieran Roche, Darren Edwards (Paul Hodgson, 76 mins), Barry Everitt (Mapletoft, 23 mins blood), Scott Staniforth, Mike Catt (Nils Mordt, 64 mins), Geoff Appleford, Paul Sackey, Delon Armitage.
Replacements Pierre Durrant, Robbie Russell, Nick Kennedy, Phil Murphy, Nils Mordt, Paul Hodgson, Mark Mapletoft

Referee: W Barnes (London)

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