By Babs O
March 1 2011

Whenever I take on writing one of these reports, two things spring to mind. The first thing is whether the game is being televised so I can review my initial notes and compare.

No such luck this week. Secondly whether the game will be an incident filled, fast flowing, high scoring spectacle that fans, reporters and rugby fans everywhere will remember for years to come (like the Wasps vs Irish game back in 2006 which I had the pleasure to be at!).

No such luck on either account but here is my report nonetheless! So the irish line up shows that Big Bob is back in the engine room to add some grunt and that Topsy and Tom Homer have switched to their more natural positions at wing and full back respectively. After the loss at Castle Grim, a win of any description was the main thing. Quins had been on a decent run of form apart from their loss at Sandy Park so by no means would this game be a walk in the park. The game was a scrappy affair with both teams struggling for fluency. Irish were first off the mark when Malone slotted the first of his 4 penalties. Irish seemed the better team however Quins were continually giving away penalties. Their left winger, the aptly named Ollie Lindsay-Hague was looking very lively and made a couple of decent breaks which resulted in penalties which Rory Clegg took to give Quins the lead. Malone followed with another 3 points and Clegg had been given the opportunity to level the scores before half time. What was apparent was the complete inability of the referee to take control of the game as Joe Marler should have been sin binned for a deliberate slap of the ball at the base of a ruck right in front of him.

Second half was more of the same with neither team looking likely to get over the white wash although the Exiles looked the more dangerous. Homer took the opportunity for us to take the lead early in the second half and once again the game really lacked any fluency. Nick Kennedy was making a nuisance of himself at the Quins lineouts and it was also clear to see how much of a positive effect Big Bob had on ours as we looked a lot more secure on our own ball than we have in recent weeks. After a sustained amount of Irish pressure on the Quins line, Jordan Turner-Hall saw yellow as his team continued to infringe although I was disappointed that the first yellow had taken this long to come out. Clearly Mr. Davey felt sorry for the away team as he felt the need to send Hodgson to the bin when there was no clear or apparent offence. The signal made by “Sir” had indicated a deliberate trip but you know something is wrong when 30 players, coaching staff and around 8000 people in the stand have no idea what the yellow is for! Anyway fortunately for us it had no bearing on the final result as Malone had slotted another 3 points and the game eventually finished 15-9 to the men in green.

Not pretty but at this stage of the season I will take any win we can get. It’s interesting to note that the fans (including myself) get frustrated when we don’t have a plan B or the inability to win ugly when required. Well this was one of those times and we did what we needed to do. As a sportsman myself, I know that you can’t play well all the time no matter how hard you try but the key is to win those games and look to build from there. We have a tough end of season so it’s important to build towards those games in the healthiest position possible in my opinion. Man of the match... difficult but will give my vote to Nick Kennedy. Was all around the park and was a continual thorn at the lineout. He was definitely aided by having Mr Casey back alongside him so an honourable mention there. Here’s to a win next week at Leeds.