Unfortunately, the inclement weather decided that drizzle was the order of the day, and just got heavier once the game started, leaving the otherwise pristine pitch more than a tad moist and very slippery.

The teams came out through tunnel of local kids, with Coventry being lead out by their mascots riding in the backseat of convertible from their sponsors, which then drove up the pitch within the 5m line leaving 2 shallow grooves in the pitch, which would have a slight bearing on the game a couple of minutes later.

Coventry kicked off to a roar from the crowd and was gathered well by Quins with Mehrtens clearing down the pitch. A resultant ruck produced quick ball for Coventry, who passed to Higgins to kick to the corner. All the danger seemed to have passed as the ball-bounced towards the dead-ball area, shepherded by Brown. Unfortunately, a bad bounce held the ball up and with the Coventry chasers sensing an opportunity Brown had to play the ball. In attempting to gather, Brown slipped on the wet pitch and his boot hit the touchline 2m out. From the lineout Coventry took the ball at two, set up a maul and drove towards the line. Their momentum was checked by the Quins pack just short, but a well worked roll saw Gravell go over in the corner for the first game's first try, inside a minute. The conversion was missed primarily because Higgins had to kick from the grooves made by the car and so scuffed the kick, which never went within 20 yards of the posts.

Some scrappy play then ensued as both team tried to keep to control of the ball in the constant downpour. One of these drives lead to a penalty to Quins 30m out and just to right of the posts, as Coventry failed to roll away in the tackle. Mehrtens easily swept the ball over the posts. 5-3.

From the restart, was taken by Quins, an infringement at the ruck gave Coventry a long-range penalty, which was confidently stroked over by Higgins. 8-3. It was clear that the conditions were going to be a levelling factor, with the winner being the team that could control the breakdowns better. The refs haphazard approach to policing rucks lead to an exchange of penalties in each other's halves, limiting the amount of clear cut chances, though several drives from Quins breached the Coventry 22. Then on 15 minutes, a kick to touch from one penalty, lead to a lineout about 20m from the Coventry line, which was taken by Miall. A maul was well set and started to trundle up the park and was eventually stopped illegally a metre short. Quins choose to take the scrum from the penalty and attempted to push Coventry back over their line. Initial thrusts were thwarted, but when the ball went out to Deane on a crash ball lead to a ruck 2m out, from which Ceri Jones picked and drove, ably supported by the back-row and went over 10m to the left of the posts, with Mehrtens adding the two points. 8-10.

The restart saw the first in a series of extremely poor box-kicks that went nowhere and the Coventry fly-half gathered and put in a garryowen. In striving to charge down the kick, Brown followed-through and landed on Higgins to howls of derision from the crowd. Play was called back once the touch-judge alerted the ref to the fact and Brown found himself getting a 10-minute rest. How the ref came by the decision for the placement of kick is a bit of a mystery to me, as the garryowen landed with the 15m line and was then carried infield by the Quins counter-attack. However, the penalty was awarded directly in front of the posts and easily slotted by Higgins. 11-10 with 20 minutes gone.

A messy restart attempt from Coventry lead to a tight exchange of possession as both teams utilised a variety of kicks to get the opposition to turn and have to deal with a bar of soap masquerading as a ball. In this period a drop-goal attempt from Mehrtens flew wide of the posts.

A couple of minutes later a delightful low kick Mehrtens found touch just outside the 22. Quins stole the lineout and another good kick from Mehrtens was fielded by the Coventry Fullback, who had no choice but to kick into touch well inside the 22. A long-throw to the back of the line lead to a series of drives in field from Vos and Easter, before it was released to the backs. When faced with the onrushing Coventry defence Mehrtens opted to chip the ball towards the try line and was caught, in goal, by a Coventry player who was bundled dead by the chasing Quins pack for a Quins 5m scrum. A slight delay for a minor injury meant that attention was momentarily off the scrum and when it was set So'oialo, picked the ball up from the base of the scrum and somehow slipped past the Coventry cover for a try under the posts, converted by Mehrtens. 11-17 with 2 minutes to half-time.

Straight from the restart, some excellent pressure from Coventry forced Mehrtens to fumble and knock-on. From the scrum Higgins put in a lovely grubba kick, which had Deane scrambling across to slide out with the ball. Another catch and drive almost saw Coventry end the half as they started it, but some resolute defence aided by some woeful technique (they seemed to like to set the maul 3-4 yards behind the gainline and from a static start) from Coventry allowed Quins to repel and drive back the Coventry pack. When the ball was finally released to the backs they were promptly turned over by the excellent Vos and a Coventry infringement allowed Quins to clear and end the half, with the Quins 17 points to 11 up.

The second-half started well with Mehrtens kicking deep, with the return kick being sliced to touch just outside the 22. The lineout was taken by Miall and tapped to So'oialo to release Deane, who almost broke the line. The ball was recycled quickly and a drive shoved Coventry onto the back foot. Another poor box-kick from So'oialo actually turned to Quins advantage as Coventry failed to gather it cleanly. Mehrtens tried another drop-goal from the scrum but it slipped agonisingly wide again.

Keogh gathered the drop-out on the halfway line, who darted back up the field, evading a few tackles before being brought down just outside the 22. Quick recycling by the forwards lead to a drive another few metres up, before Brown, who was charging into line, broke through the Coventry defence but was hauled down a couple of metres short. More good rucking from Quins gave Mehrtens an overlap to use, which he took full advantage of by shipping to Vos, who then gave a slightly questionable pass to Keogh to dive over in the corner. After a quick consult with the touch judge the try was given, but Mehrtens push the conversion across the face of the posts from out wide. 11-22 just 4 minutes into the second half.

After this the game turned into a tactical battle as both sides struggled to keep possession in the constant rain, with kicks being put in more in the hope of mistakes being made rather than to gain territory. Quins generally had the better of the play as fitness maybe played a part, with Quins definitely getting numbers to the breakdowns quicker, but they also had an imperious Mehrtens pulling the strings and keeping Coventry honest.

With 20 minutes left the substitutions - which the muffled PA made difficulty to keep track off - started with Vass and Duffy replacing the poor So'oialo and Amesbury. At the same time an order must have gone out from Deano to increase the urgency, as a difference was seen right away. A decent box kick from Vass (Steve please watch and learn!!!) lead to a poor clearance from the Coventry scrum-half giving Quins a lineout from 5m outside the 22. A tap-down from Miall to Vass lead to a swift series of passes with Duffy cutting back in on the angle. He broke through the gainline and offloaded beautifully to a rampaging Evans, who steamed over from 15m taking three Coventry players with him. Mehrtens converted easily and the Bonus point was secured. 11-29.

The game then died a bit as a spectacle as Quins exerted more pressure without really threatening the line greatly. A sign of the Malaise was the fact that a section of the crowd (particularly the multi-denominal group I was with) started to give the Coventry No.11, Moore, a lot of grief for being cleaner than the subs who came on. One enquiry from the Bath fan, as to whether he was Guscott in disguise, drew a notable gusset-wetting reaction from some quarters. The reason for his cleanliness was apparent a few minutes later, when his "attempt" at getting to the breakdown was to be slower than a front-rower and then laying his hand on the back of the back player, before dropping back when someone else arrived.

With 10 minutes left a penalty to Quins found touch on the Coventry 22. Another penalty for pulling down the maul was conceded from which Mehrtens put in a cross-field kick for Duffy to chase. Although he easily got there ahead of Mr Clean, he couldn't hang on. The resulting scrum was reset a couple of times before some backchat from the Coventry Hooker gave Quins another penalty. A scrum was called, and even though the rain had now started to move into tropical storm categories, Quins called a backline move (perhaps the doubling of the floodlights made them more bold) with Deane and Masson acting as dummies and Brown releasing Duffy to break through the defence before offloading again to Keogh, who had looped round. Even though Keogh was hauled own a couple of metres short, the momentum of him and his tackler oozed him over the line for his second try, which Mehrtens converted for 11-36.

Almost immediately Quins were on the attack again, but knocked on in the 22. Coventry caught the disease and wasted there chance to clear but a crunching tackle on Deane lead to a good kick and chase by Coventry, who then isolated and turned Duffy, winning quick ball for pretty much the first time in the match. Another kick through by Higgins was chased by himself to score under the posts. The conversion was duly made for 18-36 with a few minutes left.

Coventry won the restart and were able to launch the quick-footed and evasive Richards after several penetrating drives. Fortunately for Quins he was bundled into touch 5m out and the ref blew the whistle to end the game.

Overall, Quins were the better team being able to dominate the breakdowns with superior numbers. The weather meant that both teams played a lot of 10-man rugby but it was still a good game to watch. Man of the match for me was Mehrtens for the way he orchestrated the tactical play, and the near flawless execution of it (just the couple of drop-goal attempts let him down). Vos, as ever was everywhere but I was impressed greatly by Robshaw and Miall for both their rucking and lineout work. So'oialo was deeply shocking and Amesbury will probably not being looking forward to the video review. The difference when Duffy came on was very telling.

Teams:
NEC Harlequins:
Ceri Jones, Tani Fuga (Jimmy Richards ,72 mins), Ricky Nebbett (Lorne Ward ,65 mins), Jim Evans (Kevin Burke ,72 mins), Simon Miall, Christopher Robshaw (Luke Sherriff ,65 mins), Andre Vos, Nick Easter, Steve So’oialo (Ian Vass ,57 mins), Andrew Mehrtens, Charlie Amesbury (Gavin Duffy ,57 mins), Mel Deane, Tajiv Masson, Simon Keogh, Mike Brown (Adrian Jarvis ,75 mins).
Replacements: Jimmy Richards (Tani Fuga ,72 mins), Lorne Ward (Ricky Nebbett ,65 mins), Kevin Burke (Jim Evans ,72 mins), Luke Sherriff (Christopher Robshaw ,65 mins), Ian Vass (Steve So’oialo ,57 mins), Adrian Jarvis (Mike Brown ,75 mins), Gavin Duffy (Charlie Amesbury ,57 mins)

Scorers: Tries: Jones, So'oialo, Keogh (2), Evans. Conversions: Mehrtens (4). Penalty: Mehrtens

Coventry
Kisi Pulu, Richard Protherough, Peter Bucknall, Ben Gulliver, Dave Campton, Henno Venter, Gareth Gravell, Hendry Rheeders, Mike Walls, Jon Higgins, James Moore, Donovan Sanders, Nik Witkowski, Kurt Johnson, Richard Davis.
Replacements: Rob Chrystie, David Harvey, Craig Richards, Tom Johnson, Dan Farani, Rich Siveter, Alex Gluth

Scorers: Tries: Pulu, Higgins. Conversion: Moore. Penalties: Moore (2)


Final Score: 18-36 (11-17)


Match Officials:
Referee: Andrew Small
Touch judges: Mark Wilson, Martin Buck

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

• Think you know your sport? Click here to try the Sportnetwork Prize Quizzes