Harlequins
The Big Bang! Harlequins 59:0 All-Stars
By claire_m
August 9 2010
With the final score 59-0 to Harlequins, I decided not to concentrate on the game, writes claire_m. I don’t really know what to make of Friday night’s game. It was great to be back at the Stoop, though I was sitting in an alien stand. It was a strong Quins side, only missing the England players and the injured James Percival and George Robson.
Within a minute and half, Quins were already on the scoresheet, with Gonzalo Camacho scoring the first try, which Nick Evans converted. Having missed pretty much the entire season last year, it was great to see him back on the pitch and he looks like a great prospect.Within 3 minutes, Tom Williams scored and Evans converted. There were a further 4 tries before half time, including a stunning solo attempt by George Lowe for the 5th try, running the length of the pitch. Simon Keogh did his best to catch him, but couldn’t quite make it. At half time, the score was 40-0, with Will Skinner, James Johnson and Mike Brown also touching down and Nick Evans converting 5 of the 6 tries.
The second half saw a number of changes in personnel from Quins (the All-Stars regularly changing players), with Lambert, Grey, Marler, Kohn, Brown, Wallace, Moore, Clegg, Casson and Smith coming on. This altered the fluidity a little and the All-Stars also settled into the game and only 3 tries were scored – the first for Joe Grey and the final two by Luke Wallace. Rory Clegg converted all 3. The final score was 59-0.
After the game, I decided that the match report should concentrate more on the legend that is Tani Fuga and his contributions to Harlequins, rather than the game itself. I also asked how the pre-season is going and for thoughts on the coming season.The overriding impression I received was how highly Tani is regarded by all those that have played with him, or who have coached him. As a number of past and present players and staff very kindly spoke to me, I’m going to share their thoughts, so I apologise that this might now go on a little!
I first spoke to Billy Davison, who had been unable to take part in the All-Stars team. He told me that Tani was held in such high regard and that he was desperately keen to play and was upset not to be able to as he wanted to support the superstar that is Tani. He felt it was rough that Tani’s team were playing against an ambitious premiership side, who stuck to their structure all game. They were cold, but had no doubt been told to play that way and the way that Quins played was a good sign for the forthcoming season.
Next up was Roy Winters, who hadn’t played with Tani for 5 years. Tani had joined Quins when Woody was still playing and he has been massively committed to the club since he arrived. He has always been tremendously loyal and has been a great family man, which Roy admired. Tani’s family has always been a part of his career and his family have always been at the Stoop to cheer him on.I asked Roy how long the All-Stars had trained together and he told me that they had had a training run at 3pm this afternoon, they ran a few moves and had decided just to do the basics well. He thought that Quins had been on fire in the first half. Finally, there was a massive loss to rugby with Tani not playing any more.
Simon Keogh told me that Tani had given him the air-fare to come over for this game due to the amount of money that Simon had taken off him playing poker over the years! Tani had also taught Simon every Samoan swear word in existence, though I felt that might not be overly useful. Simon agreed!Simon told me that the Samoans and the Irish were similar and they always stuck together and that was why there was a large Irish contingent playing in the game and it was a testament to the man that Tani is that so many wanted to come over.I asked Simon if it was really true that he has retired and he said that it was. He is now training to be a solicitor in Dublin.
I accosted Mark Lambert (I wasn’t backwards in coming forwards!) as I thought he would have a story or two, especially being a fellow front-rower. Mark told me that all the boys had written in a book which was being given to Tani (I hope it has now, otherwise I’ve just ruined that surprise!) and he thanked Tani for being like a big brother to him when he first joined the academy through to his first games for the first team. Together with Ceri Jones, he felt hat Tani was the definition of a great Harlequin, who loves the club. He was a fantastic player, who put his body on the line every time he played and the club would be a lesser place without him.I then asked about the forthcoming season, and Mark told me the aspirations were to play every game well and to win every game you can. They had set high standards, both individually and as a club. I told him that I thought that they had been ruthless today, not allowing the All-Stars to score a single point. Mark agreed that they were ruthless and this was one of only three pre-season games. These were important games and they wanted to play them with the same mindset that they would for the league games. If they were 40-0 up against Wasps, they wouldn’t let them score at the end of the game and they wanted the same tonight.I asked Nick Evans for his thoughts on Tani. He said he had only played with him for two seasons, but that he was a credit to the game. He never seemed to age and that staying at one club for so long is unheard of. Tani was loyal and that the game had been a good send off for him. It showed that Tani had such good mates that so many people had turned up and he’d enjoyed it. He added that he’d catch up with Tani for a beer in New Zealand in the future.I then asked Nick how pre-season training has been going. He said he felt it was going well and that Guildford was great. They had spent a long time in the gym and it was good to start playing again. I mentioned the ruthless word again and Nick said that they wanted to be ruthless, to put the hammer down and nail it in the coffin. The season was starting well and they wanted to carry this on.Collin Osborne told me his favourite Tani story and he was giggling as he was telling me, so I thought it would be a good one! Back in the days when we trained at Aldershot (so a few years ago!), Collin was in charge of the academy. One summer holiday, they had some schoolboys training alongside the 1st team and they could have lunch with the first team and mingle with the players. In the afternoon, there were coaching clinics held by the players. Dippy held a back-row clinic, Ceri Jones had a clinic for props and Tani had one for hookers. Tani and Ceri ran out of things to do and decided to join forces and held a front row session. Towards the end of the session, they held a Q&A. One boy, of around 15 asked a question about what to do if someone from the opposition did ‘X’. Tani and Ceri thought about it and replied. The boy responded ‘I’ve tried that and it didn’t work’. Tani and Ceri thought about it some more and suggested something else. The boy responded ‘I’ve tried that and it didn’t work’. Ceri and Tani then looked at each other and replied simultaneously ‘We’d head butt him’!I could see why Collin was giggling whilst recounting this! I asked him how pre-season training was coming along. He replied that the boys were looking sharp and there was a spring in their steps. They had finished their conditioning work and had been playing rugby for between 2-3 weeks. The coaches were pleased with how training has gone so far and there were another 3 weeks before the first ‘proper’ game. I told Collin that I thought the boys had been ruthless this evening and he agreed. There were values that the team were focussing on – excellence and ruthlessness – and he wanted the boys to buy into this and hear other people say this about us.I caught up with our new(ish) DOR Conor O’Shea. He told me that Tani was so old that he had played against him at London Irish(!) and he was such a nice, genuine man. There was a depth of feeling and affection held towards Tani and this is only felt for good people. He was a great, hard player, who played with a smile on his face, but with a hard and physical edge.I asked Conor how the pre-season training was going. He told me that they had enjoyed the move to Guildford. They feel that they’re doing the right thing, though every club feels this way now. He feels that the squad feels stronger than this time last year and that training was going well. The game against Connacht next week would be a step up from this game and the boys were going to have the chance to enjoy themselves a little as they had worked hard up ‘til now. They were a great bunch of lads and he was looking forward to the end of the ‘phoney war’ and for the season to start.I found Rob Jewell next to the bar and I asked him for his thoughts on Tani. He said that he had first met him 6-8 years ago and that Tani’s rugby career had gotten in the way of his dancing career! His first night out with the boys, Tani had been tearing up the dancefloor and had always fancied himself as a mover!I then asked Rob for his thoughts on Quins. He thought that they were getting younger. (I agreed, they really are!) They had some dynamic forwards and they need to get structure behind the scrum and make line breaks consistently, though they have the players to do this. If they stay together as a unit, then they will do some exciting things.Andy Gommersall, captain of the All-Stars was up next. He began by telling me how gutted he was by the game. He had wanted the boys to play in Tani’s style and whilst they had shown glimpses of this, they had not done his name justice.Gommers felt that the Quins boys of old would have let Tani’s team score, but this was not the nature of this Quins team, which looked very impressive.Talking to Gommers, I saw his enthusiasm for the game and for Harlequins shine through. He believes that things are meant to happen for a reason and he was meant to play for Harlequins and he was meant to play alongside Tani, who is such an inspiration.Gommers said that he hoped that Tani would be honoured by Quins with something tangible. He was also keen for the ‘old boys’ to get together and share a beer in the future and this was important for the heritage of the club.I asked Gommers what he’s up to at the moment. He said that he might still play on (I told him that he would be a long time retired!) but wants to be involved with kids and to coach them and put something back into rugby. He has a few things keeping him busy and life is currently too busy for rugby, which he felt was a good place to be.I asked Neil McMillan for his thoughts on Tani and he wanted to thank Tani for looking after the younger guys at the club and for being such an inspiration. He also wanted to apologise for the abuse that Tani received for being Chinese and looking like Mr Miyagi.Simon Miall came out of retirement for the game and was my man of the match (not that I told him that!). His mind was probably frazzled from his excursions as he seemed to be speechless after the game! He credited Tani with being the first person to introduce himself to new players and he was (is!) incredibly generous. He added that Tani finds it very hard to keep his shirt on and I think he has been exposed to more Samoan hakas in this last year than one man needs in a lifetime!The last words were from the man himself! After his many years at Quins, Tani has grown close to both the players and some of the fans and he felt that everyone had been so nice to both him and his family.His playing memories were the Narbonne game and the two Stade Francais games of two seasons ago, which were like playing international rugby.I apologise that this has become something of a tome and didn’t really feature much of the match itself! 80 minutes of rugby after an incredible 10 years was never going to do justice to the man and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these stories as much as I enjoyed hearing them. Whilst Tani may no longer be a Harlequin, he will never be forgotten and he was (is) a true legend.Thank you Tani, for all of your contributions to Harlequins and I wish you and your family a very happy retirement and best wishes for your future.
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It seems to have lost its formatting mid-Mark Lambert. I clearly got carried away...
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