By The Prof
January 23 2004

After what seemed like an eternity Quins were playing at home again, the last team we had played at The Stoop was Centransa UEMC and before that we have to go back to November when we hosted Leeds Tykes. Our visitors on Saturday were Montuaban, the management had changed ten players from the side who had won in style in France but the side still looked strong. The conditions, although not as bad as the week before, were still far from ideal but Quins again managed a fine display. To give them their due, Montauban started the game very strongly and for the first quarter Quins hardly touched the ball. But after that the home side started to pile on the pressure and started scoring.

Hayter was first on the score sheet, he was there to finish off a move that started with Duffy (as much of Quins’ good play did on the day) then went through Matt Moore to Burke before finding the young hooker.

The second try again came from a kick fielded by Duffy who leapt high to take the ball before sprinting forward, drawing a tackler and then feeding Chris Bell who took the ball at speed drawing another defender before passing to Matt Moore who finished off the move with style.

The third try was probably the pick of the bunch, the forwards and backs intermingled in a fantastic move up the left wing, Duffy, Burke, Deane, Moore, Worsley and Diprose all played a part before the ball was passed to Roy Winters who got a rare chance to score – it must be in with a chance of try of the season.

With the score showing 24-10 (an aggregate score of 67-18) Quins decided to try some moves out, penalties were scrummed or tapped.

Matty Moore got his second try of the game when Scott Bemand fed him with a beautiful inside pass. The final try came after a magnificent break by Duffy who was felled with a high tackle in the right hand corner, After the restart the ball was sent left and Ben Willis showed some nifty footwork to jink through the Montauban defence to score.

So five tries, a 100% kicking percentage from Burke, some good scrummaging, excellent attacking runs from Duffy, Bell, Burke, Harder and some slick handling by forwards and backs alike.

On the injury side of things only Josh Taumalolo and Simon Miall are in the physio room and both are expected to return from injury in the next month or so, as Evs said last week, it’s nice to go into the business part of the season with a full squad to choose from.

The second XV had a disappointing result against London Irish, going down by one point. With the only Quins try coming from …

The junior sides had a mixed weekend with the U21s beating their counterparts at Nottingham 19-24 with tries from Crowley, Chinudu, Lewis and Brown . However the U19s lost 17-10 with only Nicholls scoring a try.

The strength of the Quins Academy was shown again at international level, Mark Lambert played tight head in England U19s’ win over Scotland and hooker Marlow Warrington-Mattei and flanker Chris Robshaw watched the game from the bench. A further seven Academy players were named in the England U21 training squad: Henry Barratt, Chris Bell, Tom Parker, Adrian Jarvis, Ugo Monye, Andy Reay and Tom Williams. This was more than any other club. Congratulations to them all.

On the amateur side of the club the Wanderers beat Hammersmith & Fulham 4th in a six try win (30-3) with tries from Webster, Grundleigh, van der Westhuizen, Haarhoff (2) and Thompson.

The Ladies played well and had much of the possession in their top of the table clash with Chesham. The Quins try came from Burbidge as the game ended 5-5. The Ladies are still in second place 5 points behind Chesham but with a game in hand. They go to Plymouth this Sunday to play the joint second place team Plymouth in another epic battle.

This week sees Brive visit The Stoop, followed by the Natal Sharks. The U21s play Worcester and the U19s play Gloucester. The Amateurs host Chess Valley in their top of the table clash. Please note the 2nd XV game against Wasps has been postponed.

Come on you Quins!