By The Prof
October 23 2003

The club pulled out all the stops to make watching England’s game against South Africa as easy as possible. There were extra television screens in all of the bars and a huge screen in the corner of the ground. There were extra bar staff and the can bar was doing a roaring trade. England won, it was a tense match and the atmosphere in the bar reflected it. The relief felt by all those supporting England was tangible. Will Greenwood’s try was greeted by an eruption of cheers and the noise levels were pretty similar when Jase came on and got yet another cap.

The outstanding Quins player in what was a poor match was Andre Vos, talking to a neutral in the bar after the game he said that we had the best captain in the northern hemisphere, I didn’t disagree, but I thought he was probably the best in the southern hemisphere too. What would South Africa give to have him leading them in the World Cup?

On the injury front it looks like Ugo Monye wasn’t as badly injured as first thought so hopefully he’ll be playing against Sale (sorry Sharks, or is it just Sale again?), Chris Bell (who was injured in the pre-season against Gwent) and Karl Rudzki (who was injured in the play offs against Leicester last season) will both be appearing for the 2ndXV against Northampton on Monday at The Stoop. Ace Tiatia and George Harder are not too far off playing again either.

With the injuries to Ace and Tani, James Hayter will start as hooker which means Cameron Dott will com onto the bench. Dott has played well for the U21s and we wish him well in his first game for the first team.

The second team didn’t have a match but the U21s played the Army and won well, scoring 52 points. Chris Cracknell scored three tries and Evans, Leask, Woods, Guest and Barratt all got a try a piece.

Mark Lambert (prop) and Anthony Allen (centre) have been selected for the England U19 development squad and Duncan James and MarimbaOdundo-Mendex are on standby for the trip to Dublin in December.

The Amateurs didn’t have a game but they were seen on the pitch at half time in the game against Gloucester, they were picking up their award for winning the Herts and Middlesex 3 South league last season.

The Ladies team were being sponsored by the Diamond Geezers this week and they had a tough game against Weston Super Mare at home. They ran out winners 47-0 and scored nine tries into the bargain. Dani Knight scored four tries and ran some beautiful lines from fly half and kicked well from hand too. The fact that the Ladies didn’t let their concentration lapse and let a try in at the end was another big positive, but, as an ex-front row, the champagne moment for me was a scrum won against the head, not because of the opposition being pushed off the ball but because of a fine strike by the hooker Susie Seymour-Smith. The bonus point that they secured by scoring more than five tries lifted them to third place and might be important at the end of the season.

There was one thing that put a dampener on all our moods, Will Greenwood had to fly home because Caro, his wife, was having trouble with her pregnancy, it seems that the scare is over now and I would like to wish the Greenwoods all the very best.

Finally Jason Leonard has been selected to start against Samoa and therefore his record number of caps continues to grow.

Here’s to a good win against Sale and good win for England against Samoa.

Come on you Quins!