By Harley Quin
February 13 2006

Actually, grit in Yorkshire is more accurate. It was the sort of “White Rose” February day that we were warned about last August – rainy, cold, and bleak. Quins fronted up. Grit and determination were punctuated by moments of sheer brilliance as

Doncaster mistakes were ruthlessly punished by a team in uncompromising mood. The result was a 45-0 away win. The fact that Pirates beat Bedford gave double cause for celebration. The magic number is down to 28.

As Dean Richards later admitted, the coaching staff saw this game as a potential “banana skin”. They needn’t have worried. With the game only 3 minutes old Doncaster were adjudged offside following a scrum in their own 22. AJ made no mistake from in front of the posts.

Five minutes later came the first “champagne moment”. Tom Williams caught a Doncaster clearance on his own 40 yard line, made a jinking run up to half way, kicked over the defensive line, got to the ball first, soccer kicked it over the try line and beat the cover defence to score. A stunning solo effort and a potential winner of Quins try of the season. With the help of both the wind and the woodwork, Jarvis took the score to 10.

Vos and Greenwood congratulate Williams ©Prof

At this point the Doncaster forwards, like several other teams before them this season, decided to test the “resolve” of the Quins forwards. “Handbags at Dawn” was Deano’s subsequent view of the melee following a lineout. The referee yellow carded both Simon Miall and Donny lock Glen Kenworthy.

Fisticuffmanship! ©Prof

At this stage the game was very bad tempered indeed. Needless to say, the atrocious refereeing did little to help the situation. Where these officials come from, I cannot say, but this one brought memories of the Nottingham game flooding back. Awful is too complimentary a term to describe his performance.

Quins kept going. Following a scrum on the Doncaster 40 metre line, Easter took the ball from the base of the scrum and rumbled down the blindside. A fluid passing movement left AJ clear to romp home from 20 yards out. Another easy kick took the score to 0-17.

AJ romps home ©Prof

Jim Evans was the next Harlequins to exact maximum exploitation of a Doncaster mistake. Sloppy handling saw the home side lose ground in the visitors half. The ball eventually came back to stand off Rob Liley, whose attempted kick over the top was charged down by Evans who then outpaced the Doncaster cover to run half the length of the field for try number 3. The kick presented no problems to Jarvis and Quins were 24 points to the good.

Tom Guest almost scored the bonus point try with a burst from halfway. He was eventually dragged down 10 yards from the line and a knock-on from the maul snuffed out the chance.

Masson puts Guest in space ©Prof

The travelling faithful did not have to wait long. As the game went into first half injury time, a determined tackle by Will Greenwood on the Doncaster 40 resulted in a turnover. Quick ball saw another smooth backs move ending with Ugo Monye sprinting the final 30 yards untouched. Jarvis added the extras and the teams left the field with Quins holding a 31 point advantage.

Ugo touches down ©Prof

Doncaster started the second half with two knock-ons inside their own 22. Eventually, their carelessness was punished when a short chip over the top of the defensive line was grabbed by Tom Guest, who brushed aside a would-be tackler and scored under the posts.

Formal introduction or congratulations on scoring? ©Prof

Simon Keogh almost added to the score with a bursting run, but the referee judged the releasing pass to be forward.

It was time to shuffle the pack. Kevin Burke replaced Jim Evans, then shortly afterwards Lorne Ward and Aston Croall took over the propping duties, the latter making his debut in ND1. Sheriff then replaced Vos and, most interesting of all, George Harder replaced Ian Vass – so Simon Keogh took over at 9 for the last quarter of the game.

Quins came close to scoring again. What has become a trademark rolling maul from a lineout close in was held up over the line and then another powerful run by SK was only halted by a great last ditch tackle.

Despite their hopeless situation, Doncaster never gave up. Assisted by a penalty count of amazing proportions, they kept taking the game to Quins. After one initial penalty attempt at goal (short from 40 metres) after only five minutes of the first half – which would have tied the score at the time, Rob Liley opted to go for tries. He later explained that it was more important to practice their moves and lines rather than gain meaningless penalty points.

However, today, the defensive effort was immense. After two highly strenuous defensive practices last week, I was assured by one of the players that they had no desire to go through that again next week!

Keogh crosses the line ©Prof

Then on 68 minutes try number six closed out the scoring. Following a Doncaster scrum 5 metres from our line, Simon Keogh stepped in for an interception which he then ran back over 80 yards to dive under the posts and claim the try he deserved for his efforts. As all this was happening, AJ was lying on the ground after a clash of heads. So up stepped a new kicker, Mr Will Greenwood, to notch the conversion. His swagger back to the halfway line was pure “Cleese”!

After the game AJ admitted the players were already “hearing it” from the kicker with the 100% record! Mel Deane replaced AJ, with “Mr Automatic” moving to 10. That was basically that.

Jarvis down injured or does he realise he'll never hear the last of Greenwood's kick ©Prof

After the game Dean Richards was delighted. “Our boys were pretty focused mentally, which was quite nice to see and came out and did the job that was asked of them. We were pleased defensively that they didn’t score a try.”

“They didn’t breech the line that often and our scrambling defence when they did was good. We worked hard on our defence this week, we thought we were stepping off the gas a little bit.”

Despite Bedford’s loss, there will be no let up from Deano – or the team. “Our goal is to go through and win every game we play. We have the capabilities to beat every side and that is our goal this season. The players now are beginning to understand the pressures they put upon themselves and what we are looking for. They are setting their own goals and standards and seeing the dividends at the end of every week.”

With that, the “Ceremonial Tour” pulled out of Doncaster. Next stop Exeter.

 

NEC Harlequins:
Williams, Keogh, Greenwood, Masson, Monye, Jarvis (Deane 68 mins), Vass (Harder 58 mins), Rogers (Ward 55 mins), Richards, Nebbett (Croall 55 mins), Evans (Burke 51 mins), Miall, Guest, Vos (Capt.) (Sheriff 58 mins), Easter.
Replacements:
Fuga, Ward, Croall, Burke, Sherriff, Deane, Harder. 

Scores: Tries: Jim Evans, Simon Keogh, Tom Guest, Tom Williams, Ugo Monye, Adrian Jarvis. Conversions: Adrian Jarvis (5), Will Greenwood (1). Penalty: Adrian Jarvis

Doncaster:
Boden (J), Riley, Wood, Cannon, Van Vuuren (Storey 63 mins), Liley (Capt.), Lane, Bunting (Barretto 66 mins), Roddam (Boden 47 mins), Tau (List 63 mins), Kenworthy, Cook (D) (Rule 45 mins), Earnshaw, Grainger, Montagu.
Replacements: List, Boden (S), Barretto, Rule, Cook (O), Storey, Benson.