By Blakedown Quin
February 6 2006

England ran out narrow 26 - 18 winners at Sixways Worcester on Friday night in front of a crowd of nearly 7000 and a SKY audience . On a cold crisp dry evening, Quins provided Chris Robshaw and Mike Brown in the starting line up and Mark Lambert among the replacements.

Chris Robshaw at blindside flanker had a strong game particularly in the first half, supporting well particularly around the fringes, as England tried to play a structured game and tackling effectively on the rare occasions that Wales had the ball (Structured seems to mean dominating possession, lots of box kicks and not scoring any points )

Thus Mike Brown spent his first 40 minutes stuck out on the left wing starved of any ball and left vainly to try and close down a Welsh overlap early in the first half .However, as Wales came much more into game after the interval , he put in several crunching tackles, as well as looking very solid under the high ball . Finally, he linked up with forwards to complete England’s best move of the match and run in from 20 yards to score.

There were the usual rash of substitutions after 60 minutes. Chris Robshaw was replaced but in turn Mark Lambert joined the front row for a fleeting visit before he was mysteriously pinged while on his feet at what looked like a maul and trudged off again. On his return from the sin bin he was limited to a couple of bullocking runs.

There was still time for Mike Brown to be denied a second try before England clinched the game with a try for Jordan Crane (Leeds ) who together with Tom Croft (Leicester ) were the 2 outstanding players.

So plenty to cheer about for Quins supporters not least because the SKY commentators kept referring to Premiership players and Premiership teams and none of “our 3“ looked out of place in a solid but unspectacular England performance .There was also the collectors item of a free kick awarded for a crooked put in to a Welsh scrum by the French referee.

With Jordan Turner Hall playing wing for the England U_19 , Mike Brown for the U-21 and Dave Strettle signing from Rotherham / Earth Titans it looks as though we will not be short in that department next season.