By The Prof
January 30 2004

So we have a good week to look back on with two very exciting games played at The Stoop, the first visitors were Brive then on the Tuesday we had our annual visit from the Natal Sharks. Talk before the Brive game was all about their top of the pool position in the French League and of their powerful driving game. Most Quins fans were hoping for a 10 point win to take over to France for the second leg. But straight from the kick off we knew things were going to be different, the Quins forwards picked the ball up and ran at the defence over and over again before feeding the ball right to Harder who went over in the corner, the clock hadn’t even reached 1 minute!

Harder was on the score sheet again after a fantastic set move from a scrum worked to perfection, the defence moved right waiting for the ball to be sent wide but Harder steamed through on a pop pass to score to the right of the posts.

Just a few minutes later Burke made a scintillating break and sprinted, drifting left, before he put a beautifully weighted pass left to Tani Fuga who was steaming up the wing.

A try was scored in the same corner a little later when Simon Keogh picked the ball up on the 10m line and backed his pace, he sprinted in an arc to score right in the corner.

It was a great all round performance from Quins, they blew Brive away with their error free play, let’s just hope the performance can be repeated in France.

But before the team head south they were to play host to the Natal Sharks who were making their annual visit to The Stoop.

Although the young Quins side lost they can hold their heads up high, after going behind 0-19 they fought back and played some lovely rugby against the Super 12 outfit. Hayter scored a try either side of half time, the first one a throw to Bill Davison at the front of the line who tapped it back to the hooker who ran through three or four tackles to score. After half time he was the one who had his hands on the ball at the base of a maul that trundled over the line.

Matt Moore showed what a great attacking wing he was cutting a great line through the Sharks defence and running out of the arms of one tackler to score. The final Quins try came from the opposite wing when Jewell chased a crossfield kick, plucked it out of the air and touched it down in goal, replays show that his foot was on the line so perhaps he was a tad lucky to get away with the score, but then again the Sharks got away with a couple of decisions so they probably all balance out.

All in all it was an enjoyable evening and a good spectacle for the crowd and the viewers on Sky.

On the injury front Ugo Monye is having some trouble with an ankle injury and will miss the trip to Brive and the forthcoming International 7s tournaments. Both Simon Miall and Josh Taumalolo are still recovering well. Josh should be playing for the 2ndXV on Monday and Simon should be playing some second team rugby in the next few weeks. Let’s hope we can have a completely empty treatment room soon.

The junior sides had a mixed weekend with the U21s scraping a win against Worcester with tries from Masson and Guest and the U19s having a disappointing loss against Gloucester.

The ladies had a long and disappointing trip down to Plymouth Albion where they lost 24-5, the only score coming in the form of a try from Jane Wilson.

There was yet more good news with a number of Quins players being named in international training squads. Gavin Duffy got his first call up to the Irish Six Nations training squad to join Paul Burke and Will Greenwood and Jason Leonard retained their places in the English training squad. Mark Lambert has again been named in the England U19 starting line up, they will play France on Saturday. At U16 level Jordan Turner-Hall, Mark Odejobi, John Brake and Rory Hamilton-Brown have all been selected for the England training squad. This brings the number of Quins players in national squads to 19 – congratulations to them all.

This week sees the first team visiting Brive in the second leg of the Parker Pen quarter final, the 2nd XV play against Saracens (although with the number of players out because of having played in France or being in one of the international training squads it will be interesting to see what sort of team is put out), the junior teams visit Moseley and the Amateurs visit the old enemy Wasps. The Ladies will be playing in a triangular tournament against Hove and Rosslyn Park on Sunday at Old Isleworthians RFC, there are rumours of TV cameras turning up so pop along and support the Ladies.

Come on you Quins!