Quins starting line up was:
1. Bruce Starr
2. Keith Wood
3. Laurent Gomez
4. Karl Rudzki
5. Simon Miall
6. Darryl Griffin
7. Luke Sherriff
8. Tony Diprose
9. Matt Powell
10. Paul Burke
11. Matt Moore
12. Chris Bell
13. Will Greenwood
14. Ugo Monye
15. Nathan Williams

So only six of the starting line up would have been first choice last season.

Mr Hogg, the Hawick referee, blew his whistle to signal the start of the game to a resounding shout of "every time referee" from the noisy Quins portion of the crowd which set the tone and volume for the away support.

Ugo Monye, the new Quins right wing took a high ball successfully showing his skill and pluck early on. The first scrum was solid and Burke alleviated early pressure with a long kick. Nathan Williams showed invention and skill throughout the game, the first occasion throwing a reverse pass which allowed Monye to show his pace and surprising power in the tackle, linking with the new second row from Oxford, Simon Miall to put Nathan Williams through for his first score for Quins after just five minutes. Burke dropped the first conversion over successfully to a rousing chorus of "We Love you Burkey".

The restart led to a penalty for Glasgow putting Quins on the back foot but the defence held strong before Williams had the opportunity to clear the ball. A subsequent break by Bell showed that Satala will need to prove his ability before getting a place instead of Greenwood or Bell. The ball was eventually knocked on and the scrum went to Glasgow. Quins turned the scrum, thereby gaining the put in showing that Starr and Gomez are an attacking force in the tight, something we were missing last season.

The lineouts were erratic, some were stolen and a couple were disappointingly lost but it was reassuring to see how well it functioned with no Codling and without JK's guidance.

Diprose showed that he is still first choice at number eight by making a number of fine breaks and putting in a lot of tackles. Glasgow had a rare attack down the right but the ball was lost, leading to a lineout. Glasgow continued to attack, passing the ball wide out to the left but it came to nothing due to solid defence again, especially wide out by Monye and Williams.

Two high kicks relieved the pressure, one followed up strongly by Monye and the second by Bell, eventually leading to a Quins scrum. Diprose made a break and provided a cheeky reverse pass leading to a try by Matt Powell after 23 minutes. Burke slotted the conversion to make the score 0-14. Matt Moore was replaced after 25 minutes by Rob Jewell. The restart lead to a penalty, deep into Quins territory, for the home team. Glasgow kicked to the corner and won the subsequent lineout but good defence, followed by a solid scrum prevented the score.

The new fullback, Nathan Williams, made a good break up the right hand side and was well supported by Keith Wood, who then had a mare and knocked the ball on. Quins put the pressure on at the resulting scrum, which was again wheeled, giving us the put in. There was a scrappy passage of play before half time which Quins went into with a 14 point lead.

Twelve changes were made by Quins for the second half where Starr was replaced by Leonard, Ace replaced Wood, Cardinali came on for Gomez, Davison replaced Rudzki, Miall moved to the flank in place of Griffin allowing Jim Evans to come into the second row. "Get-your-hair-cut" Sherriff and Diprose came off and the England 7s star, Sanderson and Kai Horstmann completed the back row. In the backs, Powell, Burke and Greenwood gave way to Bemand, Slemen and Greenstock. Within moments of the restart, Quins gave a penalty away and Ace gave another for not retreating 10. Cardinalli showed what a good signing he is by being fast around the pitch and making some important tackles. Davison and Evans proved themselves as successful in lineouts as Rudzki and Miall by stealing ball from Glasgow and the scrum remained in control for much of the half too. A Quins break was brought to a premature end with a controversial knock on decision against Bemand - at least from his point of view. Evans stole the resulting lineout and Jase & Bill fought each other for the ball, eventually allowing another silky break by Bell. At 55 minutes, Monye was pulled off and Matt Moore returned.

Williams again proved a catalyst in attack, lining with Moore on the right, putting the Glasgow line under threat. Quins won the lineout and lead to a rolling maul, from which Ace scored (56 mins). Slemen got the conversion from wide out on the right, stretching Quins' lead to 21 points. A clearing kick from Glasgow was collected by Williams, who ran at the defence before putting through a well weighted kick for Matt Moore to chase & score. Slemen missed the kick, leaving Quins 26-0 up.

Glasgow then produced more pressure, ending up with a penalty kick to the corner, from which Jason White (a half time replacement) scored from a rolling maul. Tommy Hayes slotted the conversion to pull the score back to 7-26, which was to prove to be the result.

So, how should we feel after this game? From my blurred, point of view, we should be quite happy. As a pre-season friendly, it was a better test than last seasons' games against London Welsh and Bedford. The pack performed well as a whole, with advances being visible in the tight with the props proving powerful scrummagers. The second rows did well around the pitch and in the lineout, a special mention must be made of Simon Miall who played the full 80 minutes. The back row also did well, Sherriff playing well and being big in defence. Dippy showed himself still as a force to be reckoned with, making a couple of good breaks. Both pairings of half-back did well and the centres, Bell (who played a full 80 minutes), Greenwood and Greenstock all looked sharp, showing the effect Paul Turner has had on the team. The wings all did a good job, with breaks from all, the new boy, Ugo Monye impressed all with his speed, defence and strength in the tackle. Nathan Williams, the new fullback looked very impressive so Ben Gollings will have his work cut out to regain his preferred 15 shirt.

Re-reading this article it may make it sound like we should sweep all before us but that is not the whole story. The ball was lost in contact too many times, players were often too slow to the breakdown and the lineout didn't seem to be of the high standard we have come to expect. Returning to the positives, the new signings and young players all performed well, Gomez and Cardinalli scrummaged well and were very mobile. The Oxford pair of Miall and Sherriff did well as did the old boy, Diprose. Bell made a lot of breaks in midfield and Greenwood seemed to have more options under the coaching of Turner. Monye and Williams both impressed the fans and look like good additions to our back three.

So all in all it was a good game, the newcomers fitted in well, we won by four tries to one, our defence looked strong, there were no injuries and the Quins fans made a lot of friends north of the border. The performance was even more pleasing when you think of the players that were not available for one reason or another: Winters, Fuga, Codling, Gollings, Luger, Vos, Satala and Duncombe.

After the game Jase said he was happy with the performance of the team and he picked out Monye, Bell and Miall for special praise. Although he warned that next week's game against Beziers would be a tougher challenge.

We would like to thank the members and players of Glasgow RFC for their hospitality and we hope to be able to reciprocate at some time in the future.

Later Mike Scott was heard to say a number of interesting things including "my two favourite things are a rolling maul and a black G-string particularly when worn by [name deleted to protect the guilty]" and that immortal line "More later..."

Any inaccuracies or errors in this report are due to the continuing inebriation of the author.

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