What we were to subsequently witness on field did little to brighten things up.

It was a grey day with a poor crowd. The reported attendance of 6.6k seems a lot higher than the numbers actually there on the day. This looked to me to be in the region of 4-5k. I can’t recall seeing such a low turnout at the Madejski in recent seasons.

The grey day aside, we had two more unexpected treats in store for us. When we checked into the hotel we were placed in the new wing, in one of the rooms overlooking the car park. These new rooms are a considerable upgrade from those we have become used to with big wide screen plasma TV’s, internet access and showers that are as good as you would find in many five star establishments.

The other, totally unexpected, treat came as we entered the hotel bar. We were invited into the Duffy group corporate box for the game. Very nice it was too. I digress. This is supposed to be a match report rather than a blog of my weekend. Let’s turn to events on field such as they were.

The opening ten minutes or so of the game was pretty dull. Both teams seemed to be testing each other out. Long kicks were exchanged without any decisive action from either side. The first real spark came from LI. From a lineout on the Quins 22 they set up a driving maul. This was moving at pace and the line appeared to be begging when the referee, our old friend Roy Mayhem, called it back for truck and trailer. This was the first of what were many spurious decisions in the game.

Irish started to dominate everything except the scoreline. It looked like we were about to take the lead on 15 minutes as the Quins no. 4 was binned for infringment in the lineout. The very kickable penalty was missed to the right of the posts by Jeremy Staunton. He subsequently missed another conversion and a penalty. It was not a good day at the office for him.

It was during this period that we saw the first of what were to be quite a few poor calls by the players on field. We were pressing, had a huge overlap but rather than spread it wide the ball was taken into the center and subsequently spilt forward. It struck me then, and I still feel it to be the case, that the confidence we have seen in the past couple of seasons is still somewhat lacking this one.

First blood did come to us on 22 minutes. From a maul near the West touchline the ball was spun out quickly to the East. Spud was the man who went over but it could have been any one of three such was the overlap. The conversion was missed, we had a lead, albeit a narrow one. LI 5 – 0 Quins.

Next blood came to the visitors. We had been pressing but well and truly messed up a lineout on Quins 22. From this the ball was hoofed upfield. Indecisive defence, perhaps not helped by the conditions, led to the ball being carried over and a 5m scrum for Quins. The Quins pack went to work mercilessly and drove us over. With a good conversion we were, incredibly given our domination, 5 – 7 behind after 33 mins.

We traded penalties prior to half time. Delon had taken over kicking duties and converted a kick from 40m out to put us briefly in the lead. Quins returned the favour just before half time to regain it. We did not realise it at the time but the score then was to remain unchanged for the rest of the game. Half/Full time. LI 8 – 10 Quins.

The second half was punctuated by missed opportunities by both sides and questionable refereeing decisions. Seven minutes into the half we had our 5m scrum pretty well in front of the posts. Whereas Quins had previously punished us we blew the opportunity by knocking forward. Shortly after this we had the line begging again. We had charged a ball down on the half way line and a maul had formed. Somehow Mr Mayhem deemed that the ensuing scrum should go to the visitors rather than the team going forward. The disbelief and frustration around me was palpable.

Delon was carried off with 15 minutes to go. It didn’t look good. With our lack of a class kicker at present his prolonged loss could cause us real problems. Here’s hoping he’s not as badly injured as it looked.

Again, you have to hand it to Quins. They soaked up whatever pressure we could put on them and in the latter stages of the game proved masterful at maintaining possession and running the clock down. It is often said that the mark of a good team is one that can win when the run of play is against them. Like it or not, they came to us to do a job and executed it well.

It is not all doom and gloom from a LI perspective. There was plenty to see on field to give us hope. It simply wasn’t our day. That said, I am concerned that we have gone from having two world class place kickers last season (Riki and Barry) to none this one. I also worry about what appears to be poor decision making on field. This I attribute to a lack of confidence. 

We are not in the depths of despair that we were a couple of weeks ago after the Wasps game but there is still a lot that needs to be worked on.

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