By Worried of Whitton
November 14 2004

WE WON! Earlier in the day I had a text message from lady supporter (name withheld) proclaiming “Tonight’s the Night”. Thinking this was a promise of a “hot date” I suddenly realised the sender was referring to the match, and how right she was!

Prophetically Planet rugby were also accurate in their match preview  they reported that “Quins have run Wasps, Leicester, Munster and Castres all to within seven points, and now they are up against a Saracens team which can easily be battered into meek submission. As long as they are not protecting a slender lead going into the last five minutes, they ought to be fine!”  That meek submission turned into total capitulation during the first fifteen minutes. I ‘m writing this report just two hours after the final whistle, still savouring the spectacle we witnessed earlier this evening at the Stoop.

One thing is for certain, the performance tonight will have silenced the critics, and Mark Evans, who has essentially stuck with the exactly same side since the match at Worcester, has proved he was right. However neither he, nor the team are complacent about the win, but they have certainly deserved it.  Mark Evans is vindicated.  "In the last five weeks we have played pretty well against some high quality opposition and have just come out on the wrong side of the ledger," he said post match. "We kept saying to each other, and I think we believed it, 'We've just got to keep playing and time will tell."

The Men in White, playing in their away strip, positively glowed under the floodlights as they took to the field on a cold and brisk evening. The brilliance of their kit certainly took the shine from their performance. It looked like a soap powder commercial was about to be filmed but as it turned out , it was Saracens who were to be pulled through the mangle.

Watching the game, which at times was played at such a frenetic pace whilst, trying to write notes has proved almost impossible. Harlequins were really fired up for this match. For the first quarter of an hour of the match Harlequins totally dominated their opponents, Quins ran in four tries, with their first four attacks. To the background of the booms and flashes from the Diwali celebration fireworks in the local vicinity, Quins played out their own blitz on the field, chalking up a point for virtually every minute of the first half. Staunton kicked off deep into the Saracens 22 with Quins centres chasing. A cry from the stand in front of me shouted “Come on Quins, Wasps were up much faster than that last week”. Saracens newcomer, Glen Jackson collected the ball and threw a loose pass which was eagerly collected by Mel Deane who continued to run the final 10 metres, unopposed, to score the first try of the evening. The Stoop exploded with joy. Just seventeen seconds had elapsed making this the second fastest try in Premiership history. Staunton added a further two points. Quins were 7 – 0 up with less than 30 seconds on the clock, and the tannoy boomed out “You ain’t seen nothing yet” .We hadn’t! The Stoop went wild, Saracens were stunned.

From the restart Saracens won a penalty, with Quins not rolling away. A kick to touch, and subsequent line out, found Saracens applying pressure under the posts. Quins defence remained solid, and the ball was sent back down field, with the late comers in the crowd just taking there seats, oblivious of the start.  Nick Easter, who was quite rightly voted Man of The Match, powered his way through the Saracens defence after a superb break from Dafydd James. Another easy conversion from Staunton and Quins were 14-0 up, after seven minutes. Saracens took the restart but failed to capitalise and just two minutes later the blitz continued when Keogh collected the ball and made a shimmying run down the left touchline, and turn towards the goal. He was tackled just five metres out but was able to pop the ball into the waiting hands of Tom Williams who had followed on behind. Tom really does excel under the Stoop Floodlights, he had another storming game. An easy conversion for Staunton followed, the score moved to 21-0.

Five minutes later, the crowd were about to witness a piece of history, although at the time no one realised it. Nick Easter collected the ball from the back of a line out in the Saracens 22. The ball was sent out wide on the right flank, as Quins moved forward and was picked up by Mike Worsley. He fended off two defenders, well actually they appeared to bounce off him, and sprinted over the try line finishing his move with a dive.  Fourteen minutes gone, and Quins not only had a bonus point, but had also picked up the fastest bonus point since the Zurich premiership started. Staunton missed his only kick of the night. 26-0. 

All around the crowd we in disbelief of the spectacle they were witnessing, was this a dream?  Saracens were unable to get hold of the ball, there line outs worked quite well and they even stole a few BUT they could not keep possession. Quins continued to be dominant throughout and were even throwing the ball around as if it was a sevens match. Nick Easter went over for his second try of the evening after twenty-seven minutes, finishing off a great move involving George Harder and Jeremy Staunton. The conversion was made and the score was 33-0. Indeed the score could so easily have been 40-0 just a minute later after Keogh collected the ball after a poor 22 drop out from the restart. Once more he accelerated down the left wing with lightning pace, beating all before him as a sea of defenders opened up to let him through. After crossing the try line he spilled the ball in an effort to place the ball under the posts and out class Worsley earlier dive.

Evans remarked after the match that this was “unforgivable”, but given Quins dominance it was not going to affect the outcome of the match. Quins continued to keep up their offensive as Saracens continued in disarray.  Just before the half time whistle, Tom Williams too, made a great break and when faced with defenders he attempted a chip and chase, but he “over cooked” his kick and he was not able to beat the Saracens defence to it.

As Ashley Rowden blew his whistle, the whole Stoop rose to give the team a standing ovation, and it was only half time! Many were spellbound by the remarkable performance they had just witnessed. The scoreboard showed Harlequins 33 Saracens 0, it seemed too good to be true, was it a dream? Confirmation was given by Sky Sports on the screen in the corporate hospitality suite behind me.  

All credit to Saracens team coming out for the second half, but perhaps they needed to escape from Rod Kafer,  they were met with warm applause. So what was the second half going to bring? Well initially more of the same.  A sustained attack towards the Saracens line appeared to have been repulsed, when they attempted to clear to touch the ball was collected by Staunton who kicked it forward, to Rauluni. He in turn attempted kick was charged down by Roy Winters who collected the loose ball and forced his way into the left hand corner to score the sixth try of the evening. Staunton calmly converted from the touch line which shows he can score from difficult angles, Quins went 40-0 ahead. At this stage, fearing a cricket score, Nigel Wray the Saracens Director had obviously seen enough and left the ground. 

The sixth try effectively sealed the game for Harlequins. During the half time interval Williams had been substituted for Gavin Duffy, and as the second half continued further substitutions continued on both sides.

Twelve minutes in and Monye and Hayter replaced Harder and Fuga, andon 26 minutes Maling and Sheriff replaced Miall and Diprose who had both had excellent games. Three minutes later Dunne came on the replace Staunton who had kicked well throughout.

As such the pace and the shape of the game changed and Quins reverted more to their defensive vigour. Saracens were able to take some consolation by scoring two tries of their own, by Tevita Vaikona and Paul Bailey who scored right at the close of the match although it was far too little too late, and neither try was converted. Interestingly during the whole match, there were no penalty kicks at goal from either side. 

Rowden blew his whistle again to signal the end of the match and a miserable night for Saracens. The Stoop erupted once more in celebration of a stunning all-round team performance. A great win, five points, six tries and, at least for a few hours pending the outcome of the game at Worcester, off the bottom of the table.

I’ve never seen the press box so crowded. Mark Evans and Scotty arrived, customarily not showing any emotion on their faces. Naturally first question “Are you going to smile?” and Evans delightfully obliged. “When ask was this win due?” the response was “Yes, I think a win was coming. I think in the last five weeks we have played pretty well against some high-quality opposition and we have come out on the wrong side of the ledger. We were very unfortunate at Wasps; Munster too could have gone our way. It is hard to concentrate on the process when you are on a loosing streak. We felt we made some big adjustments five weeks ago, that we were playing quite well and the results weren’t going our way.” He carried on saying “The casual observer has a snap shot of our performance. We see every home and away game, the fans don’t see most games although on average 300 supporters will travel” adding  "We kept saying to each other, and I think we believed it, 'We've just got to keep playing and time will tell.”  

Asked about the progress of Nick Easter, Evans said he had done tremendously well, and deserved the Man of the Match award. Nick Easter came to us as an unknown. A friend (of Evans) had suggested, no, insisted that he “take a punt” on him.  You only take first division players on a very strong recommendation because you never get the opportunity to see them play. There never is any video footage of them Nick grasped the opportunity he was given and has done exceptionally well.  Evans then confirmed that players are selected on performance. Tom Williams had grabbed the No 15 shirt and has played really well, although Duffy has not been playing badly. Monye is returning from injury, but is on the bench because the other two wings are playing very well. 

Rod Kafer was obviously subdued but philosophical. “Occasionally in a game a team gets a roll on and you can say that about Quins in the first 15 minutes. Attitudinally we were incapable of stopping them after we gifted them a try in the first 30 seconds. That was the end of it.”  It was pointed out that Harlequins were in exactly the position last week against but they did not throw in the towel. “If you not 100% focused, defence is the first thing that slips. It was an awful defensive display by us.”

When asked about Nigel Wray's departure, Kafer replied “ It is an action that I fully understand. When you are as committed and as devoted to a club as Nigel Wray is, you expect the people, management and players, to perform at a much better level than we did tonight.”

Asked about their opposition next week, Kafer smiled and sheepishly replied Gloucester. Quins also have a very tough match as well, travelling to Sale. It is another Friday night match, but after our performance tonight we all love Friday night matches.

Tonight, certainly  was the night!

NEC Harlequins
Mike Worsley, Tani Fuga, Ceri Jones, Roy Winters , Simon Miall, Nick Easter, Andre Vos, Tony Diprose, Steven So’oialo, Jeremy Staunton, Simon Keogh, Mel Deane, Dafydd James, George Harder, Tom Williams.
Replacements
James Hayter, Jon Dawson, Simon Maling, Luke Sherriff, Andy Dunne, Ugo Monye, Gavin Duffy
Tries: Mel Deane, Nick Easter (2), Tom Williams, Roy Winters, Mike Worsley
Conversions: Jeremy Staunton (5)

Saracens
Nick Lloyd, Raphael Ibanez, Ben Broster, Iain Fullarton, Simon Raiwalui, Taine Randell, David Seymour, Kris Chesney, Moses Rauluni, Glen Jackson, Tevita Vaikona, Dan Harris, Ben Johnston, Richard Haughton, Robbie Kydd.
Replacements
Matt Cairns, Cobus Visagie, Alex Sanderson, Ben Skirving, Morgan Williams, Mark Bartholomeusz, Paul Bailey
Tries: Paul Bailey, Tevita Vaikona

Score: 40-10 (33-0 HT)