By The Prof
December 11 2003

It was a relatively quiet week for Quins with only three teams playing. The first team had their first taste of European rugby for the season with an away trip to play Centransa UEMC from Valladolid in Spain. Well the first team won but it was a much closer game than most had predicted in fact Quins were leading by only a point before Evs decided to use all of his replacements in one fell swoop – thankfully we didn’t need to replace anyone because of injury. Apart from winning the other positives were the was Kai Horstmann played in his first start for the first team. He has had a good season for the 2ndXV and he performed well in the preseasons in France too. He made good yards from the base of the scrum and scored his first try too. Ceri Jones scored the first two tries, both from rolling mauls and things of beauty they were too!

There were a lot of half breaks made and the score could have been much much higher had we not kept losing the ball in rucks and mauls. The pack as a whole played very well and Evans stole a number of opposition line outs.

The mass change of players brought not only a big cheer from the noisy Quins contingent in the 3800 strong crowd but it instantly upped the tempo of the game. Deane and Bell worked well in the centres and Dawson continued making problems for the opposition front row. Samoans Fuga and Tiatia supported well and bounced off tacklers a number of times. Keogh looked sprightly on the wing and Davison looked on top form - apart from the ten minute rest he had just a minute or two after coming on!

The welcome we received from the Centransa supporters and players was certainly a highlight of the weekend, the fact that we received a similarly warm welcome from the VRAC team the day before is a wonderful reflection on the passion that Valladolid has for rugby. I just hope we can show the travelling supporters a similar level of hospitality when they visit us.

The only player to return with an injury from the trip was Josh Taumalolo, he joins Worsley, Burke and Miall on the current injury list, but at least we have Harder returning from injury to play for the first time since Rotherham – the second game of the season.

Elsewhere in the club the Amateurs won a low scoring and close game against Old Actonians with Stevens scoring the only Quins try, OA went ahead in the second half but Eaton secured the one point victory with a penalty late on. The win may not have been pretty but after a couple of disappointing results to beat the team currently at second in the division was good enough.

The Ladies won more easily against a team who always scrap well for the ball. Quins came away 0-30 winners with tries from Saskia Brazier-Kobus (2), Pippa Butt, Tanya Wilson, Rennison and Dani Knight. This win means the Ladies go into the Christmas break just four points behind the league leaders Chesham.

So three wins out of three last week, Centransa UEMC visiting this weekend as well as a certain chap called William Ellis – or the World Cup as he’s known to you and me. Let’s get behind the side and cheer them to victory against the Spanish.

Come on you Quins!