Let me begin by nailing my colours to the mast. I love Twickenham and I'm a big fan of the Double Header.

For me standing by the river, outside the Swan, pint in hand 2 hours before kick off is one of life great pleasures and for me that pleasure is multiplied if there are supporters of 4 teams instead of 2 to chat to about the forthcoming season.

This year, however, we abandoned our simple riverside pleasures and decided to infiltrate the upper echelons of English rugby and picnic in the north car park. If I say planning for this event was carried out with military precision, think Crimea or The Bay of Pigs fiasco rather than the Normandy Landings. That said, the advance party rolled up at Twickenham at 1100 hrs i.e. at least 1 hour too early and with what transpired to be twice as much food and 3 times as much drink as was necessary for 10 people.

For anyone planning car park picnics at Twickenham, and I would heartily recommend it, the north car park has a gravel surface and so doesn't become muddy like the west car park or Cardinal Vaughan's in the winter but probably has less of a party atmosphere. This is certainly so if you arrive an hour early and fear that you will be picnicing alone. By midday it was apparent that we would have some like minded neighbours including Bisach, Sarah, Charles, Mutts Nuts and Brian from NZ who was doing a month of rugby in the NH.

The obvious benefit of picnicing at Twickenham is that you can have wonderful food and drink at very little cost but you also have a great base from which to wander around, gate crash other picnics, watch the start of the Wales v Australia game and wander back to base for another chicken wing and steadying glass of vino before the arduous task of writing a match report.

And so to the main event, first impression was that the completed stadium is fantastic but the crowd was down on previous seasons. We were sitting in the middle tier at the junction of the west and north stands along with other Irish supporters who had requested west stand seats because some of their party are unable to sit in the east stand on sunny days. These are definitely not premium seats and I hope that the allocation of east and west stands to the participating clubs rotates year by year.

The Game.

Quins kicked off and the first few minutes were unsurprisingly edgy and scrappy. We got an early penalty because some of their forwards took exception to Nick winning lineout ball. Our old friend Mr Rowden was referring and he was also unhappy with Paicey tackling 1 of their guys in the air.

Around 9 minute mark Molly Malone who joined Quins from Bath opened the scoring with a penalty, which may have been for not releasing the ball in the tackle, but my notes are unclear on that point.

After a lineout in the south east corner play moved swiftly to the diagonally opposite corner where LI would have a chance to attack a Quins defensive lineout and perhaps put some pressure on the Quins line, your reporter would also have a chance to see the action more clearly, but play was called back and after discussions with the touch judge David Paice was yellow carded.
Quins went for a lineout in the corner and Ollie Kohn scored from the resulting drive. Molly missed the conversion, 8 nil.

Halfway way through the first half Nick stole 1 of their lineouts and from the resulting ruck we got a penalty for not rolling away which Jeremy staunton kicked to make it 8 - 3 and we were back to 15 men without suffering too badly.
It appeared to me that our lineout, as expected, and scrum were doing well and we were putting their lineout under pressure but we were unable to retain possession or put them under sustained pressure. Their defence was coping easily with our midfield attacks they looked more dangerous with ball in hand than we did.

Jordan Turner-Hall confirmed that with a lovely try under the post after a mix up our midfield defence. Molly converted 15 - 3. 1 of the problems of report writing is that you are so concerned to write things down that you don't see the replays on the big screen so I'm not sure who missed whom in the lead up to the try.
Irish got a penalty for blocking, probably at the restart but again the notes are dodgy and JS kicked to make it 15 - 6.

In the last 10 minutes of the half we at last achieved sustained possession and played the game in the Quins half. Delon unfortunately spurned a scoring pass to Topsy and although Ash called play back for an earlier penalty we fluffed the lineout and Quins broke away down the left. Delon made amends with a try saving tackle.

Molly hit the upright with last kick of the half after Dec was adjudged to have deliberately knocked on.

15 - 6 at half time and I thought that given that the game was played in our half that we would be happier with that scoreline than Quins. I felt we were playing the game the way they wanted and missed the leadership and organising skills of Catty or Bob and Mapasua's penetration in midfield.
Service from the little bar in the concourse behind our seats was excellent and if my notes from the first half were difficult to read those for the 2nd half are much worse, so apologies if this reads as fiction.

2nd Half.
Irish get early possession but make no headway. Nick is penalised for not releasing and Quins kick to our 22. from the lineout Molly kicks to the far corner and Hal Luscombe touches down. Ash consults TMO, try awarded and Malone converts 22 -6.

Irish getting more possession and David Pace scores to make it 22 - 13 with the JS conversion.

With 15 minutes left we were chasing the game and probably being too adventurous. On another Quins foray into our 22 Malone put up a beautifully flighted kick which Tom Williams gathered to score under the posts. Dodge and Ash were upended and Ash again consulted the TMO. Try awarded 32 - 15 and bonus point to Quins.

Lots of substitutions had been made by both teams around this time and Irish finished strongly. Tomas De Vedia had 2 runs down the left and was denied by the TMO on 1 occasion and Ash inexplicably didn't go to the TMO for the other possibility. Although this was shown on the big screen my ability to focus was seriously impaired by this time and I've no idea if it was a try or not.

Steffon scored a lovely try under the posts after being fed by Dodge.

Molly kicked a long late penalty and Irish had the last word with a good forward effort yielding a try for Richard Thorpe which even with the conversion left us short of a losing bonus point.

Those of you who are disappointed that this report seems to concentrate more on Chris Malone's beautifully judged kicks than the actions of our new players and the galvanising effect of our late substitutions please accept my apologies but our seats high up in the corner and the ready supply of alcohol interfered with my ability to do the job.

My overall impression was that we didn't play to our strengths, we seemed to be able to pressurise their lineout and should perhaps have kicked to touch more frequently and that we lacked some leadership.

We watched the 1st half of Saracens v Wasps game, retreated to the car park for some sustenance and a great day was rounded off by watching an unlucky Georgia fail to cause a big upset in Bordeaux.

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