This is the kind of play that keeps teams in the premiership and when we (hopefully!) go back up next season is the kind of tactic which we will need to employ to maintain our status there by using the peerless boot of Mehrtens to its full potential. I think it also partly underlines Nottingham’s record over the previous three games that we felt we needed to “bury” the game in the first half by punishing every infringement and putting points on the board every time we got into their half. However, when I look through my notes from the game it’s very apparent that I’ve written “good back play” quite a lot but don’t note any real action in the danger zone of their 22. Most of the kicks were medium to long-ish range with Quins seemingly uneager to put the ball into areas which might potentially lead to a 7 pointer.

After Nottingham’s first penalty bounced off the left upright within the first minute they were then penalised for being offside and Mehrtens duly stepped up to slot the ball through the posts to make it 0 – 3 after only 4 minutes. After the restart Quins stole lineout ball – an area in which Miall dominated throughout the match – and after a free kick a second penalty was awarded to Quins for an infringement at the resulting scrum. No problems for Mehrtens to make it 0 – 6. Nottingham then put themselves in the first real attacking position of the match by opting to put the ball in for a 5 metre lineout after Quins were penalised for bringing down a rolling maul. They managed to make several phases but some good tackling from Quins led to Nottingham being caught offside and losing the momentum. The first quarter ended with two further Mehrtens penalties, the second for Nottingham driving up in the scrum. Shortly after that Nottingham were penalised again for not rolling away in the contact area and Mehrtens slotted over a long range effort from just inside the Nottingham half: 0 – 15. At the restart Gavin Duffy made a fine break making 20 metres or so but was adjudged to have held on by the ref and Nottingham were at last able to get their first points on the board courtesy of an Ali Warnock penalty, 3 – 15. Shortly afterwards Quins found themselves a man up after Nottingham’s number two Joe Duffey was sin binned for a punch on Ian Vass. However, we utterly failed to capitalise on this. In fact I note that Nottingham had the better of the initial five minutes of this period with a series of moves while the ref played a lengthy period of advantage. However, this came to nothing and Nottingham were brought back for the initial penalty in front of the posts but dead on the half way line. Unfortunately for Nottingham the attempt easily made the distance but drifted just wide of the uprights. Quins dominated the next scrum turning it ninety degrees and made several half breaks but hadn’t scored any further points when Duffey returned to the pitch with three minutes of the half to play. Nottingham continued to apply the pressure keeping Quins defending for the final period of the first half including a missed dropped goal, but never looked like threatening our line.

So, I thought, we’ve demoralised them and our superior fitness will show through and we can go in for the kill and the bonus point in the second half! Just like Newbury, right?

Unfortunately Nottingham had different ideas. They came out in the second half fired up to continue as they had ended the first, only with an increased intensity. Had it not been for the astute tactical kicking of Mehrtens and the six first half penalties things would have felt a lot hotter under the collar. However, Nottingham couldn’t push home their advantage and punish us, failing to kick another penalty after four minutes when Quins were caught offside. Once again right in front of the posts the kick easily made the distance but drifted just wide. Nottingham were also starting to dominate in the scrum too, twisting Quins 90 degrees and this dominance was finally rewarded in the seventh minute with a try after the ball was spun wide after good break and a rolling maul led to No. 4 Paul Arnold crossing the line after the ball was released. Ali Warnock then converted the points from the touchline to make the score 10 – 18. Quins started to seem a little rattled, making handling errors and conceding penalties for diving in at the contact area. When we did have possession Mehrtens continued to probe away with some fantastic kicks from hand. He really is a class act. With a little over ten minutes of the half gone Ward and Dippy came off to be replaced by Alex Rogers and Nick Easter. Easter’s impact was immediately noticeable with Quins beginning to get back on top again and after 16 minutes Mehrtens chose to put a kick into the corner after Nottingham were penalised for driving up in the scrum. After a brief driving maul the ball was spun out wide to Ugo who was eventually penalised for holding on. With a quarter of the game to go Sheriff was replaced by Tom Guest and Tani by Jimmy Richards. Several times over the next 20 minutes I noted wonderful breaks from Guest. If he carries on in this vein he will be pushing the other back rows very hard for a regular starting spot.

With 25 minutes gone Jarvis replaced the injured Mehrtens and stepped up immediately to take a penalty which bounced off the left upright. The score remained nail bitingly close at 10 – 18. Five minutes later and further tweaking of the team brought on Tom Williams for Jordan Turner-Hall with Gavin moving in to the centre. It was clear we were trying to move things up a gear and a minute later we finally got a bit of breathing space when Ugo took his opposite number on out wide to cross the line and carried on round to put the ball down under the posts, allowing Jarvis an easy conversion and taking the score to 10 – 25. Nottingham made four changes to their team but the stamina of the Quins team was starting to show, particularly in our dominance of the line out. With five minutes to go Nottingham had another player binned for knocking the ball out of Ian Vass’s hand as he tried to take a quick tap, but we were making too many careless handling errors and Nottingham were defending too well to even contemplate the bonus point with the time left on the clock. Deep into injury time Keogh pick up an opportunist try when he picked the ball up from scrappy play within the 22. Jarvis converted and the ref blew his whistle to end play with the final score 10 – 32.

After the match I spoke individually with Scotty, Deano and Vos (I still haven’t had the joy of a press conference since press is a bit sporadic in this division!). As you would expect they all told me we had come here for the win and they were satisfied to take the four points back home. Scotty said Nottingham were a well organised and competitive side who had had two good wins and were perhaps a bit unlucky not to have come away with a win at Plymouth the previous week, and we had prepared for this match on that basis. He also said that the second try might have put a bit of gloss on the score line but our aim is to consistently put tries on the opposition in the final 10 minutes, so they were happy to come away with two scores in that time this week. Deano said there was a long way to go in this league, still another 22 games, but everything is going to plan. Away games are going to be difficult this year and we can’t take anything for granted. He said he felt the team got a little frustrated after the Nottingham try but picked themselves up towards the end. He said 5 points is probably what we were after but we were happy to go away with 4. When asked by a local reporter if our next match in the East Midlands would be at Welford Road he gave a wry smile (no, really!) and said we would have to wait and see. Andre gave very similar sentiments saying the first half had pretty much gone to plan but the team were disappointed with their performance in the first 10 – 15 minutes of the second half when the intensity fell off a bit. He also stressed that we came here for the 4 points and were happy with the win.

NEC Harlequins
Ricky Nebbett, Tani Fuga (Jimmy Richards ,64 mins), Lorne Ward (Alex Rogers ,54 mins), Jim Evans, Simon Miall, Andre Vos, Luke Sherriff (Tom Guest ,54 mins), Tony Diprose (Nick Easter ,54 mins), Ian Vass, Andrew Mehrtens (Adrian Jarvis ,67 mins), Ugo Monye, Jordan Turner-Hall (Tom Williams ,69 mins), Mel Deane, Simon Keogh, Gavin Duffy.
Replacements: Jimmy Richards (Tani Fuga ,64 mins), Alex Rogers (Lorne Ward ,54 mins), Pablo Bouza, Nick Easter (Tony Diprose ,54 mins), Tom Guest (Luke Sherriff ,54 mins), Adrian Jarvis (Andrew Mehrtens ,67 mins), Tom Williams (Jordan Turner-Hall ,69 mins)
Scorers:
Tries: Ugo Monye, Simon Keogh. Conversions: Adrian Jarvis (2). Penalties: Andrew Mehrtens (6)

Nottingham
Peter Cook (Alex Loney , 50 mins), Joe Duffey (Neil Fowkes , 50 mins), Tonga Lea'aetoa, Paul Arnold, Dan Moore, Craig Hammond, David Wilks, Nic Fitisemanu, Tom Richardson, Ali Warnock, Spencer Brown, Tim Molenaar, Chris Wyles, David Jackson , Ben Thompson (Will Logan , 62 mins).
Replacements: Alex Loney (Peter Cook , 50 mins), Neil Fowkes (Joe Duffey , 50 mins), Adam Corcoran, Sam Raven, Neil Stenhouse, Alan Cook, Will Logan (Ben Thompson , 62 mins)
Scorers:
Try: Paul Arnold. Conversion: Ali Warnock. Penalty: Ali Warnock

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