London Irish  18 - 12  Harlequins       

Monday. It is only a week since Quins called off a friendly because they had no props, and now the Rugby Times says that London Irish are looking for another prop. Doug Wheatley was spotted at the London Welsh game with his hand bandaged up, so maybe it’s true?

Now we hear that Evans, the Quins lock, is out for most of the season with a badly dislocated shoulder, so Quins have rushed to sign the 38 cap Samoan lock Opeta Palepoi, who may have to play, although he only hit England today. (Palepoi is Samoa's main source of line out possession and has scored many tries for Orrell.)

Supporters at both clubs are playing guessing games about selection. Our guesses seem to revolve around the two from three, Bishop, Staniforth, Appleford puzzle, plus choices at 9 and 10, with young Hodgson gaining support at 9. Then we have the front row question of Flav or Robbie Russell. The jury is out on that one.

There are injury concerns about Bish, Peter Poulos and Mike Horak, whose deputy Delon Armitage had his face filled in during the London Welsh game. How friendly are these friendlies, really? Hopefully O’Sackey and Scotty Staniforth are wrapped in cotton wool.

Thursday. The team announcements cause a certain degree of angst. Why are Horak and Murphy on the bench? Have Armitage and Roche really been that much better pre-season or are Murph and Mike not yet recovered fully from injury? In which case why are they on the sheet at all? Indeed, you do begin to wonder about our spate of injuries when Gussie lets it be known privately that even he isn’t 100%.

LONDON IRISH
15. Delon Armitage; 14. Paul Sackey; 13. Geoff Appleford*; 12. Mike Catt*; 11. Scott Staniforth*; 10. Barry Everitt; 9. Darren Edwards; 1. Neal Hatley; 2. Adrian Flavin; 3. Rob Hardwick*; 4. Ryan Strudwick (captain); 5. Bob Casey*; 6. Paul Gustard; 7. Kieron Dawson*; 8. Kieran Roche.

Replacements:
16. Pierre Durant; 17. Robbie Russell*; 18. Nick Kennedy; 19. Phil Murphy*; 20. Nils Mordt; 21. Paul Hodgson; 22. Mike Horak* or Mark Mapletoft*.

Unavailable for selection due to injury are: Justin Bishop (hamstring), Declan Danaher (hamstring), Adam Halsey (foot), Rodd Penney (hamstring), Peter Poulos (shoulder) and Doug Wheatley (hand).

QUINS

15. Gavin Duffy; 14. Ugo Monye; 13. Will Greenwood; 12. Mel Deane; 11. Simon Keogh; 10. Andy Dunne; 9. Steve So’oialo; 1. Mike Worsley; 2. Tani Fuga; 3. Jon Dawson; 4. Karl Rudzki; 5. Simon Miall; 6. Ace Tiatia; 7. Andre Vos (Capt.); 8. Kai Horstmann.

Replacements: 16. James Hayter; 17. Ceri Jones; 18. Luke Sherriff; 19. Roy Winters; 20. Maama Molitika; 21. Jeremy Staunton; 22. Tom Williams.

In the pack, Tony Diprose has yet to recover from a dislocated thumb picked up in the pre-season friendly victory over Ulster. The other players unavailable for selection are Dafydd James (quad strain), George Harder (knee), Maurice FitzGerald (back), Joe Mbu (fractured hand) and Jim Evans (dislocated shoulder).

The general reaction on the LI message boards seems to be slightly muted. We view the Quins back row with some alarm - big, strong and very fast. Ours seems not so big, not so strong but hopefully just as fast if they don’t get worn out – which they may. Most of us feel that we’ll use our entire bench. A close game is on the cards.

Wayne Barnes is down to ref in place of Ashley Rowden. Reactions are mixed.

Saturday. 06h45. Picnic packed for the car park party. Early doors today since I need to secure a quick getaway from the car park after the game. Have just read that La Cheile are not allowed to play The Fields today, so am printing 60 sets of words to pass around for any who need prompts. Well, why should the team go without their song? For that matter, why should we?

Excited? I am like a little boy looking forward to a long-awaited treat, but I have a dreadful suspicion that we are going to miss Horak, Poulos (especially) and Murphy in our starting line-up, and am not feeling as cocky as I might. In my view this is going to be a battle of the back rows and the ball received by 9. Both teams claim decent defences and both teams are packed with runners. Bring it on.

GW&GG and I arrive at 10h15, ready to do battle for a suitable picnic spot, and we two, plus Noel and Rhona, negotiate a place in the front corner of the West car park, and arrange things so that others can join us there. By 11am a horde of LI supporters are getting into the party spirit, sharing AG, picnics and banter. Marie organises balloon blowing and Annette recruits sponsors for her charity glide. When the LI team bus arrives, the first thing they see is several hundred of their supporters looking happy and welcoming. Despite the shock they in turn look glad to see us.

We wonder how the team will cope with temperatures in the eighties.

Seated by 13.40 just in time to see Lynn and her Irish dancers perform centre pitch while the teams complete their warm-ups around them. A great show by the young dancers. The tannoy puts out the Fields and Mighty Quin before the game. The announcer seems enthusiastic if incomprehensible for much of the time.

The run of play

Within the first two minutes London Irish are awarded three penalties. Only one is kicked to touch. Driving play up the right is followed by first Catt and then Sackey being unceremoniously dumped, and it is Quins’ turn, but from within their 22. Try what they may, nothing works.

The two packs (and the back rows in particular) are slugging it out, with no quarter asked or given, but the Irish defence looks solid.

In the first 20 minutes, play hardly leaves the Harlequins half. The Irish forwards are nothing if not feisty and Casey, Flavin, Hatley and Strudwick all make bursts with ball in hand. The back row are everywhere, doing everything. Catt continually tries crash ball moves, and miss moves to the flanks, which look more promising. Barry Everitt kicks an easy penalty after ten minutes, and within five minutes unaccountably misses another. He then succumbs to a cut nose and goes to the blood bin on 23 minutes.

Suddenly the opposition go up a gear and we encourage them. Tofty puts out a flat pass to Staniforth, who stumbles, then Catt tries a miss pass which is collected by a Quin. Five minutes of scrambling play from both sides ensue, with Quins starting to make headway into the green half. Irish break up a young rolling maul.

Everitt returns on the 30 minute mark, and, coincidentally, we return slowly to the form of the first 20 minutes. Superb interpassing between Armitage and Staniforth makes ground, on the left, and play moves through several phases to Catt, who spills the ball, under no real pressure. Reassuring to know he is human, because his tackling is out of this world. In fact it nearly removes a Quins head and Mr Barnes is forced to suggest that this is unkind and against the rules. Catty graciously inclines his own head.

We play keep-ball pretty well, and we also keep nicking Quins ball. Barry the boot breaks, setting up a move which only ends when a chip to the left wing falls into enemy hands. Monye is put away in space on our right, but Catt nails him into touch, saving a likely try. How did he get there?

Much to-ing and fro-ing ensues and Quins kick a penalty (for over the top) in the 42^nd minute to make it 3-3. Barry kicks one on 45 minutes to make it 6-3 at the interval.

The start of the second half is lost to this reporter, but I arrive in the 2^nd minute to find that well-known rugby thug Barry Everitt being expelled for a high tackle. It seems that his tackle arm bounced off the ball and went north to a player’s throat. Sounds harsh, and my (impartial) neighbours say as much.

The resulting penalty takes play to a few yards from the Irish line, where it remains for an uncomfortable few minutes while Quins try to force their way over. Irish are not feeling kind, and steal the ball when they really do need to, but Catt’s clearance is charged down.

LI harass from the scrum and kick through, and Mafeking is saved! Within five minutes a penalty to Irish enables the ball to be kicked out just short of the Quins line, and we start to do to them what they just did to us – but with better results because Geoff Appleford dives for the line and is adjudged to have grounded the ball. Mike Catt converts in Barry’s continuing absence in the sinbin. 13-3.

Shortly afterwards Murphy comes on for Gustard, and a contrite Barry returns, just in time to try and repel an attack up the middle which ends with Sackey and Armitage keeping the ball out of Quins reach behind the line. Whew!

We enter a period of five minutes or so, in which the sides take it in turns to advance. However, it must be said that we do look unflappable. New boy Staniforth brings off a sublime smother tackle to kill off an overlap situation.

Dead on 24 minutes into the half, Mike Catt leaves the pitch with an injury, and is replaced by Mordt. Following a Murphy break we are double-pinged for lip after being penalised. I fail to identify the culprit. Russell replaces Flavin on 27 minutes and having broken up an attempted rolling maul we have to dog it out in defence for nearly ten minutes. Hard work and a little luck allows us to escape at the cost of two Quins penalties. 13-9 and alarm bells are ringing, because we are being put under pressure.

Alarm bells are heeded. A series of pick and goes up the left leave us on the Quins 22. The ball emerges from the ruck, and Staniforth goes left. Sackey, with the ball, goes right, stops, looks around, inspects his hanky, tests the wind, calls his tailor and lopes forward, untouched, to dot safely down half way in to the posts. This is made possible by all the other players, from both sides, standing stock still for several minutes. Or so it seems to me. The conversion hits the left post. 18-9.

On 40 minutes Quins take a ball from the back of an Irish line out, and ignore an overlap to the right. Irish respond with a rolling maul which takes play from the 22 to halfway, where Quins are eventually penalised. However, this encourages the multi-coloured ones to work their way back upfield, putting in wave after wave of kamikaze attacks, sucking in the Irish defence until a try seems inevitable. The helpful Mr Barnes awards a penalty under the posts in the 43^rd minute, which enables Quins to go for a losing bonus point. 18-12. A vengeful Irish raid on the Quins half is brought to a halt by the final whistle in the 47^th minute.

Summary

This was a game Quins might have won. Not should have won, because too much of their play was stereotyped; they tended to telegraph their punches, in boxing parlance, and became predictable in attack. They certainly did not deserve to win, but they could have done so.

As individuals, many Harlequins played well. As a team they did not, constantly ignoring overlaps and spurning countless opportunities for three points. All too frequently their much-vaunted threequarters seemed to be pedalling backwards while they actually had ball in hand. They often found the gain line hard to cross.

The London Irish rush defence was mighty, a throwback to the heady days when the Doc first took the reins. Everyone contributed, but I noticed our centres and back row playing a prominent part. I would want to watch it again before commenting on its structure – but it definitely worked, until later in the second half when constant Quins pressure was sucking people out of position and creating tell-tale gaps. Happily it seems that Harlequins do not ‘do’ gaps, or overlaps as I call them. Others will doubtless do so.

Irish themselves looked sharper than for many a long year with ball in hand, but too frequently contrived to have a cluttered field when the ball went down the line, and seldom broke free. For one or two glorious periods in each half, however, the Irish backs got well onto the front foot, and really threatened. Indeed, twice in the first half we were denied tries only by last ditch tackles by Quins.

The London Irish line-out was a thing of beauty, marred only by an overthrow into Quins hands in the eighth minute. Indeed much of the Exiles’ throwing was to the back, while, in contrast, many of the Quins’ throws were directed to the front, to enable short-side raids. The LI scrum was not quite so pretty, and while nothing was lost against the head, there was one scrum in the 25^th minute when our front row became vertical and we went back. Doubtless this was because a prop was trying to attract the attention of one of the wandering beer vendors!

Was this the real deal? No, I do not think so. The training ground takes time to translate moves from blackboard to match day, but there were some very definite green shoots visible. I want to be around when it finally ‘clicks’. Subject to player availability, I think we well give the pundits a headache this year. What a shame.

Stats

Statistics can prove anything, and I am neither a statistician nor much of a reporter. Rather than incur the wrath of our Head Coach I will simply say that the following is culled from my notes, which may be fallible as I missed the first two minutes of the second half, and, occasionally, games run faster than you can write!

		London Irish	Harlequins
Scrums awarded to (All went by the head)		11	9
Line Outs awarded to		13	17
	Line outs lost	2 (Both long throws)	4
Knock-ons by		5	7
Steals by		5	1
Penalties to		11	13
	Kicks at goal	3	4
	Kicks to touch	6	7
	Short ones	2	2

Pen portraits

This was a game of extremes. Mike Catt heroically tackled Monye when he was headed for the line with a two man overlap, only minutes after he, of all people, had knocked on a sitter, and in almost the next move high-tackled a Quin (Monye?) in front of the posts. He was lucky to stay on. Barry the kicker ran beautifully and missed a penalty and a conversion, both of which he would normally have scored with his eyes shut. Digby made breaks, and the threatening Harlequins back row were neutralised by the smaller and relatively unheralded but energetic Irish trio.

Fred Gustard mowed people down, Awesome made huge yards and hits in the middle of the park, and the reborn Roche was just that. Reborn. He bears no resemblance to the player of the same name who wore our colours last season. He was everywhere, and very effective without being flashy about it. A player’s player. When Mr Poulos is fit again, I’d hate to have to choose our back row – or our number eight in particular!

Geoff Appleford made some great tackles, and scored a lovely burrowing try. Paul Sackey had a busy day, covering for three, and scoring the silliest opportunist try ever. On the other wing Scott Staniforth looked pure class, but had no real chances. His feint to the left drew a couple of Quins defenders to enable Sackey’s try, so he earned his wages! The front five were everywhere, and kept up with or led much of the play. All should get medals. Our first phase stats make good reading, once more. Adrian Flavin over-threw once but was otherwise pinpoint accurate with his throwing-in, which mostly went to Bob Casey at 3, or to Kieron Roche at 7.

At the back Delon Armitage exhibited courage, judgement and great sang froid. He was as cool as a cucumber, making no mistakes that I noticed, and several runs that I did. The club now has a real selection problem at 15.

The replacements? Hodgson dropped the first ball that came his way, and did little else of note. He will doubtless have other chances. Mordt looked solid, and took the ball up a couple of times. Murphy worked very hard on the blind side, making a couple of telling breaks, but without achieving newspaper headlines. Russell imitated a terrier, getting about and throwing in just as well as Flavin - to my eye, anyway. Hooker is going to be another headache for the club’s selectors.

Where did this all leave us? Top of the Zurich Premiership – if only for a time. But it didn’t feel too bad!

 

 

 

 

 

 

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon