By Ralph
November 8 2005

October 2005 saw NEC Harlequins play against Doncaster (home), Coventry (away), Exeter Chiefs (home) and Earth Titans (Rotherham) (away) and come away with four wins. Here are the nominations for Man of the Month:

ROUND FIVE v. Doncaster (h) 

Our first game of October was top versus bottom in what was only our second home game of the season. In an almost worrying repeat of home game number one we took early advantage only to find ourselves held to a close score at half time, courtesy of tries from Keogh (in the first minute) and Duffy (10 – 7). King of Mediocrity’s report highlights them both on numerous occasions for their contribution, not just for their well taken solo tries, but also for showing “a fine understanding of each other’s play with switches, loops and dummies”. The second half was a less even affair as we probably hoped, with Quins posting 17 unanswered points through tries for Alex Rogers, Tosh Masson and Mike Brown to complete the day 27 - 7. Elsewhere in the backs Jarvis had an uneven day at 10, on the one hand kicking only one of five attempts but on the other running the back-line with confidence and “generating pace and territory”. So’oialo also gets praised for his continuing improvement at 9. The forwards had a good day of it too, dominating at the breakdown and scrum, where KOM noted the back row “frequently pushing them back over the gain-line”. No doubt it was for his contribution to this, his always effective leadership qualities and numerous helpful advice to referee Steve Lander that earned Andre Vos CAW’s Man of the Match with a 51% share of 177 votes. In close second and third places were Gavin Duffy (13%) and Simon Keogh (10%). 

Round 5 – Andre Vos 

 

ROUND SIX v. Coventry (a) 

Round Six took Quins to Coventry where, judging from Tank_Quin’s report, the game was played out in miserable conditions, ranging from constant downpour to “near tropical storm”. The first half saw a pretty even distribution of points with both teams registering a try (from Ceri Jones for Quins) and trading penalties, until So’oialo picked up from the base of the scrum and scored under the posts just before half time to put a small amount of breathing space between us at 11 – 17. The second half saw two tries from Simon Keogh and one from Jim Evans to give us the bonus point win, with Coventry gaining a consolation try towards the end. In his report Tank_Quin is full of praise for the line breaking abilities of Gavin Duffy and Mel Deane, as well as Vos’s control of the breakdown, an area he described as “key” to the tactical battle the weather conditions dictated. He also has praise for Mehrtens who he describes as “imperious” and “pulling the strings” all afternoon and it is he who picked up CAW’s Man of the Match with 36% of 242 votes. Steve So’oialo came a deserved second on 31%, with the other contenders gaining between 1% and 11% each.

Round 6 – Andrew Mehrtens 

 

ROUND SEVEN v. Exeter Chiefs (h) 

What can I possibly say about round seven? For the first time this season we saw Quins play to their full potential for a complete 80 minutes and look what we got. 12 tries, registered through scores by Tani Fuga, Jim Evans, Luke Sheriff, Nick Easter, Tosh Masson, Simon Keogh, Gavin Duffy and, of course, five from Ugo Monye. To be fair to Exeter they are a much better side than the score suggests and battled throughout the afternoon, but DOK puts it best in his match report when he says “they just couldn't live with us at the pace we were playing the game.” DOK’s summing up at the end of the report (which, incidentally, uses the phrase “couldn’t hit a cow's arse with a banjo” to sum up Mehrtens place kicking) is pretty much a jubilant role call of everyone who set foot on the pitch and it’s fair to say that everyone who played showed a tireless commitment to the cause in both attack and defence. So for the first time we have a 22 way tie for Man of the Match, with 27% of CAW voting for “the whole team”. Mehrtens and So’oialo again came in just behind on 18% and 13% respectively of the 255 votes cast. 

Round 7 – The Whole Team

 

ROUND EIGHT v. Earth Titans (a) 

Earth Titans away was next up, in what was expected to be one of our tougher matches on the road, and although we had probably targeted this one as a ‘5-pointer’, Rotheram’s young springbok led team, combined with some pretty awful weather conditions limited us to 3 tries and a final score of 7 – 22 in Quins favour. Tosh Masson was on hand to score for the second week in a row, and Nick Easter grabbed a brace, one of which was taken after a 40 yard break by Keogh ended just short of the line. Harley Quin’s report also praises Gavin Duffy “who had a strong game and was at the heart of most of our attacking back play all afternoon”. Simon Miall and Nick Easter too continued their strong start to the season, and have probably become two names most supporters would pencil in first when selecting their 1st XV this year. However, for the fourth time in eight matches it was Andrew Mehrtens who grabbed the Man of the Match award with 29% of the 145 votes. It’s Mehrtens’ ability to control the pace and direction of the game which is delighting so many Quins fans this season, whether it is kicking from hand, his distribution or his eye for a gap – he really is a ‘playmaker’ in the truest spirit of the term. In second place came Nick Easter, who was ahead for most of the week and was unlucky to have the award snatched away right at the end! 

Round 8 – Andrew Mehrtens

 

So, only two individual contenders for Man of the Month in October - Andrew Mehtens and Andre Vos. 

I’m going to add three further names into the pot again this month. My first suggestion is Nick Easter, who was very unlucky to miss out to Mehrtens for MOTM in Round Eight, and who is continuing his excellent run of form. I’d also like to suggest Gavin Duffy for his increasingly visible role as a line breaker. Over the last couple of seasons we’ve all seen how solid he is in defence and under the high ball, but with the increased possibilities for the team to ‘throw the ball around’ it’s becoming more and more obvious what a wonderful attacking player he can be too and that is a joy to watch. Finally, I’m going to put forward Simon Keogh for being one of our most consistent and consistently exciting players in his position. He plays the supporting attacker role so well that more often than not he is on hand to take the well timed pass on a wonderfully angled run to literally leave everyone trailing behind. He failed only by a few inches at Rotherham to get his name on the score sheet in every game in October.

 

Nominations for Man of the Month October 2005

Andrew Mehrtens
Andre Vos
Nick Easter
Gavin Duffy
Simon Keogh