By The Prof
January 1 2004

Things have been a bit hectic recently so apologies for having to combine three Prof’s Positives, covering the games against Centransa UEMC (h); Sale Sharks (a) and Gloucester (a). The first week saw the home leg of the Parker Pen Challenge Cup game against Centransa UEMC from Valladolid in Spain. Not only did Quins win and win a lot better than they had done away in Spain but the ground was sold out. This may have had something to do with England winning the Webb Ellis Trophy or the fact that the trophy was at the ground for all to see.

Quins rewarded the large crowd with a 60 point win scoring eleven tries through Ceri Jones, James Hayter, Kai Horstmann, Simon Keogh, Andy Dunne, George Harder, Rob Jewell and two from both Chris Bell and Gavin Duffy. Kai Horstmann won his second man of the match award in as many weeks and he has put a lot of pressure on Diprose for the number 8 shirt.

It was also great to be able to return some of the hospitality that the Centransa players and supporters had shown us the week before.

The win against Centransa means that we will be playing ‘lucky loser’ Montauban on January 10th and 17th – this will be a very difficult game with Montauban having beaten London Irish at their ground in the first round.

The trip away to Sale Sharks in their new home in Stockport was always going to be difficult but Quins were unlucky to come away without a win. At least all was not lost though, the game ended in a draw with tries from Ceri Jones, Jim Evans and Simon Keogh. Keogh and George Harder, who was just returning from injury, both came very close to scoring and the try that Keogh did score was one of the best of the season. So it could have been a five point win but it was only a two point draw, at least Quins are scoring tries away from home and are still picking up points. Quins were also down to 13 men for about eight minutes but held the line well showing just how well organised our defence is. This was also the first time that Adrian Jarvis was on the bench for a Zurich Premiership game – we will be seeing a lot of him in the future, but why wait, just pop down to The Stoop when the seconds are playing and you’ll see him.

The second of three extremely hard away games saw Quins visit Kingsholm to play Gloucester and again were unlucky to end up without a win. Tries came from Will Greenwood and Ceri Jones. A beautiful break right at the death by Simon Keogh looked like it would lead to a Quins win but the referee Tony Spreadbury stopped the break when he saw a forward pass. Another very close game which could have seen a Quins away win, three points lost perhaps but at least we got the one bonus point.

Quins played well in these three games, the young side did well against Centransa and the full XV (with a large number of players injured or ill) picked up points away from home, granted not as many as they may have done but they showed guts and commitment throughout.

Now that the World Cup is over the second XV will be playing in a league, unfortunately the first game of this new league was also the second XV’s first loss of the season. They travelled down to Gloucester and loss 28-10, the second XV was the only team to beat Gloucester at Kingsholm at any level last season. The side was a little different to normal because so many academy players were in the first XV against Centransa UEMC the previous weekend or were injured. The next game was a different story though, Quins thrashed Saracens 92-10 with tries coming from Henry Barratt (3), Tom Williams (3), Andy Reay (2), Jon Dawson, Rob Jewell (2), James Hayter, Luke Sherriff and newcomer Mike Brown. Adrian Jarvis had a great day with the boot kicking eleven conversions.

When England selected a XV to play the New Zealand Barbarians both Pat Sanderson and Mike Worsley were chosen but sadly Worsley had to pull out. The New Zealand Barbarians chose Ace Tiatia and Ben Willis. The three Quins players on the field in front of a packed Twickenham all played well with Pat Sanderson continuing his great form for Quins with a fine performance for England.

Also on the international front Quins U19 players Mark Lambert and Marlow Warrington-Mattei have been selected in the England Under 19 squad to play against Scotland at Fylde on Friday January 16th at 2 pm, congratulations to them both.

London Division has selected eight Harlequin Elite Player Development Group players: These players are Dene Richards, Andrew Nicholls, James Sacha, Harry Cripps, David McMeeken, Alex Rogers, Josh Reynolds and the captain, Steven Jay. They will play for London against the South West as part of a selection process for the England U18 team.

Towards the end of January the Natal Sharks are over for their annual visit which always provides a good night’s entertainment. There will also be a Sharks coaching clinic for U11s and above.

On the Community side of things Harlequins have set up a partnership with Westcombe Park RFC from Kent. On the charity front £6000 was raised by the club for the BPA through it’s raffle. Quinssa are also raising money by selling its fantastic 2004 calendar with some never before seen photographs of the players.

Quinssa also have another big event coming up on Twelfth Night with Tony Spreadbury visiting The Stoop (doors open 7pm, talk starts 8pm, it is free to Quinssa members and £3 to non-members, you can join on the night for the annual fee of £5).

Finally our two World Cup players Jason Leonard and Will Greenwood have been awarded honours to go with their World Cup winners medals. Jase is now an OBE and Will is an MBE – well done lads.

The away game against Newcastle is coming up, this has often been a disappointing journey with last year’s loss being extremely galling to the fans who had a nightmare getting to the north east. This year we are playing better, we have a better squad and hopefully even more fans will travel after the fun we had with the Newcastle fans who were also over in Valladolid to play VRAC. It will be another extremely difficult game but with a number of players being available for selection after returning from injury and illness (Mike Worsley, Tani Fuga, Paul Burke, Mel Deane, Ugo Monye and George Harder) we should be able to do it.

I’d just like to thank all the people who have written match reports and articles for this site over the year, I hope you enjoyed it and will volunteer to do so again. A special mention must go to AlanQuin who has written the majority of the second team reports and to KevT who writes the regular match previews, we would also like to send KevT and MrsT our best after the birth of their third child.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that 2004 brings Harlequin FC’s players, staff and fans all they desire.

Come on you Quins!