By AlanQuin
December 6 2004

It is difficult to decide whether either side in the match, which effectively saw Quins’ slim hopes of a quarter-final place disappear, were worth a place in the last eight of the Heineken Cup. Neither side played well in an error-strewn game, but it must be said that Quins were certainly second best as the Welsh forwards gradually exerted pressure and became dominant. The boot of Gavin Henson who kicked eight penalties drove the point home so that Ospreys won 24 – 7

It had started so well. Almost from the kick-off, a crunching tackle on Henson by Daffyd James dislodged the ball and allowed the centre to kick deep into the Ospreys’ territory and following up was Tom Williams who charged down Stefan Terblanche’s attempted clearance and collected the ball to touch down under the posts. Staunton converted easily and after 62 seconds it was easy to believe that we might be about to see a repeat of the sort of performance that had destroyed Saracens.

But gradually the Ospreys, by dint of speed to the breakdown and good kicking for position, began to exert pressure which kept Quins pinned back inside their own twenty-two. One or two typical forays by Fuga came to nothing with the ball turned over. But mostly, Quins had to defend. The scrum was creaking and while the line-outs were good, Quins rarely got good ball or field position.

The penalty count against Quins began to become onerous. Then Nick Easter, anticipating that the ball had come out of a ruck, came round the side to receive a yellow card after 23 minutes, In his absence Henson kicked two penalties and with two more immediately before half-time, Ospreys led 12 – 7 at the break.

Referees in the Heineken Cup are variable and Mr Marciello’s adjudication suffered from similar variation. In only one regard was it consistent. Almost every penalty in a kickable position went against Quins although it is true that Ospreys were penalised on occasion as they pressed on the Quins’ try-line.

The second half saw the game kicked wholly out of Quins’ reach as Henson added another four penalties while the only attempt by Staunton went wide. Staunton had been injured moments before he kicked and Mark Evans, at the press conference later admitted that Staunton probably should not have taken the kick. Dunne replaced the injured fly-half immediately after.

The remainder of the match followed the pattern which was established in the first half. Quins were pinned back in defence in their own half. Their try-line remained unbreached, but that was poor consolation for a performance which Mark Evans said was the worst that Quins had played since the beginning of October.


With his usual candour Mark Evans told it as it was. "Dafydd James put in a fantastic tackle to set up our try in the first. We never got him, George Harder and Will Greenwood into the game in attack. We didn't get into positions to do so. We conceded a raft of penalties and possession time and time again.” he said.
He went on, "There are three things that control field position in the modern game - penalty counts, line-outs and ball retention.” Our line-outs were okay, but the penalty count was desperate and our ball retention was poor and that meant equally poor field positions and having to kick the ball away to clear our lines.”
Henson was knocking over the penalty goals and we were just not able to get into good positions to do the same. It's not because Henson is a good kicker that the Ospreys won the game - they did so because they controlled territory and when you do that you'll knock over penalties. We didn't get our game going at all, we made a huge number of errors.”

"They were the better team in the sense that they had more territory and we just could not get a grip on the game. It was disappointing because that was our worst display for a long time. We played well for six or seven weeks on the trot before this.”

The only note of optimism in what had clearly been a disappointing afternoon for the management was the declaration from Mark Evans that it will be different at the Stoop next Saturday. Quins’ supporters will be hoping that too.

OSPREYS: A Durston; S Terblanche, S Parker, G Henson, S Williams; M Jones, J Spice; D Jones, B Williams (rep: M Davies, 78), A Jones, A Newman, J Thomas, J Bater, R Jones, R Pugh.

HARLEQUINS: T Williams (rep: G Duffy, 62); G Harder, W Greenwood, D James, S Keogh; J Staunton (rep: A Dunne, 51), S So’oialo; M Worsley, T Fuga, C Jones, R Winters (rep: K Rudzki, 64), S Miall, N Easter (sin-bin 20-30), A Diprose (rep: L Sherriff, 64), A Vos.
Referee: F Maciello (France).