By The Prof
December 26 2002

After a couple of disappointing weeks around the club we have had a successful week this time round. The first XV were the only Quins side in action and they won an exciting, if somewhat messy, match against Leeds in the Powergen Cup. The first positive was that Evs et al. were almost able to select from a full and fit squad for the first time this season although we were still missing Luger, Starr and Winters. The pack was pretty much the one that had started for most of the season with Sanderson being preferred to Tiatia whereas it was a different story with the backs with only Greenwood, Moore, Gollings and Williams being the stalwarts of the starting line up.

So it is no wonder that the backs didn't capitalise on the ball provided by the forwards – not only had they not played together as a unit before but they also had to combat slippery conditions and a good Leeds defence.

In the forwards the sight of Keith Wood and Jon Dawson back on the team sheet, albeit on the bench, was very welcome. The pack played well as a unit and seeing a maul rolling 40 yards towards the Leeds line was a thing of beauty indeed. The big shame was that we couldn’t push those final few yards – whether it was illegally pulled down by the Leeds pack I will not see but Lander (for the referee was he) was right there and should have been able to decide.

Quins’ defence was good, Leeds’ only try was through a mistake by our backs rather than anything they created themselves and to be honest they never looked like they would score against us. A couple of big tackles that really stood out to me were by Alex Codling towards the end of the game when he caused turnovers and by Duncombe who tackled Leeds forwards a number of times. A few of the usual suspects in the East and West Stand Bars after the game were saying that they thought the game was never in doubt – Leeds didn’t look like scoring against us and it was all a matter of whether we could get the points we needed before Lander blew his whistle.

One thing that was a great asset was the discipline of the team, we only gave away three penalties all game, and when you are up against a team containing a great kicker like Braam van Straaten it is exactly the way you need to play so well done to those who chose that game plan and also to the players who stuck to it so well. The management also produced a pentet of substitutions just before the hour mark with Wood and Dawson replacing Fuga and Gomez in the front row, Evans replacing Davison, Tiatia replacing Sanderson and in the backs Jewell replaced Moore – it was a brave decision but it came off. Both Ace and Woody were involved in the build up that sucked in the Leeds defence before Shaggy put Frodo over in the corner for a try to finally take the lead with moments left on the clock.

Other things that stood out were Jase being the only Quins front row to play the whole game looking very hungry and even waiting out on the left wing waiting for a cross-field kick in the second half. Codling and Diprose were great in the line again – could we have a front of the line option to keep the opposition guessing too?

So the game was played in poorish conditions with a drizzle falling for much of the second half and the handling and ball retention was not great but as a spectacle it was great – the forward play was fantastic with great rolling mauls (I am an ex-prop so I love this sort of stuff) and set pieces. We staged an exciting fight-back to win in the final minutes and weathered the storm of desperate Leeds attacks, we hardly gave away any penalties (although if Ace’s flailing arm had connected in front of the East Stand it could have been a very different story), and again we made friends with the opposition supporters. What more could we have asked for – apart from the chance to knock Leicester out of the Cup for the third year running? Oh yes, we got that too!

So all in all it was a very nice early Christmas present, it may have been disappointing that it was only witnessed by about 4600 but remember that this game wasn’t included in the season ticket package so it may have been too expensive for some people just before Christmas but I was very happy with the return for the price.

I hope to see another good Quins performance down at Bath on Saturday leading to Quins first away win in the league for far too long.

A belated Merry Christmas to you all and here’s to an early New Year’s present from the team.