And so, as we build towards the start of the new season, we come to the traditional summer fun of the Middlesex Charity Sevens. Two years ago, a Quins squad inspired by David Strettle won the tournament outright and the early success set the tone for most of the following season. Could we do the same again?

The intent was certainly there. Sevens is often used as a way to develop younger players – the Leicester squad, for example, contained no members of the main playing roster. But Quins named a strong side, coached by Howard Graham and Jim Evans. Despite the late withdrawal of Ugo Monye, the squad included the rest of our EPS contingent, current England Sevens squad member Ollie Lindsey-Hague and newly signed Argentine International Benjamin Urdapilleta. Of especial interest was the prospect of noted Sevens exponent Nick Easter, bringing his patented brand of “slow and lazy” rugby (TM and (c) Jerry Guscott 2006) to the breakneck pace and space of Sevens.

Quins were not the only ones taking the tournament seriously. Looking ahead to the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, England, Wales and Kenya had all entered international-strength sides in various guises. The invitational sides had all performed well in the inaugural National Sevens tournament and Exeter, Leeds, London Irish, Wasps, Falcons and Sarries joined Quins and Leicester in representing the Aviva Premiership. The British Army provided the final entry, though even with many players on active duty in Afghanistan and Iraq they were anything but making up the numbers.

London Irish, clearly determined to defend the title they won last year, began the tournament in some style – albeit against Leicester’s tyros. A squad packed with talent, including Hodgson, Lamb, Ojo, Tagicakibau and all three Armitages opened the game with two Delon tries. Leicester struck back just before half-time, but Ryan Lamb scored early in the second half before he and Ojo put the game beyond doubt in the last two minutes. 31-7.

Exeter also showed their intent, holding the star-studded HFW Wailers to a 14-all draw in regulation time before Drew Locke broke two tackles and ran from his own 22 to seal the result. Next up, the Budgies learned an important Sevens lesson: never give Tom Varndell space. Although Charlie Amesbury – one of four ex-Quins gracing other team’s squads – opened the scoring, powering over from close quarters, Varndell took control for Wasps. He created one for David Tait (newly acquired from Sale’s fire sale) before running one in himself. Tait and Nick Berry then combined to finish things off. 21-7.

There followed a string of close games. Sarries and England’s Help for Heroes played a cagey game that finished 5-5, with Help for Heroes prevailing in extra time. The British Army eased past the pink-hued Gilbert Pups (a late replacement for Scotland) 19-5, having been 5-5 at half time, and Kenya went 19-0 up against Leeds before conceding two late tries.

Then it was Quins’ turn. Their opponents were the Welsh Commonwealth Games development squad, playing as Wales Amser Justin Time. Quins looked committed but not very organised, and Ifan Evans took advantage of defensive lapses, including a rare missed tackle by Robshaw, to go 14-0 up. Towards the end of the first half, Quins began to find a rhythm, Ross Chisholm working his way over for 14-5. But it was clear that Quins would need another score before half time. It was time for the secret weapon.

When I was at university, I dallied with American Football. We had a special play in our playbook, designed to wreak havoc with the opposition’s defensive organisation. It was brilliant in its simplicity: instead of giving the ball to one of our speedy running backs, once or twice a game we would give it to Toby, our biggest lineman, a player never normally allowed to touch the ball. Toby was never very fast, but he would rumble inexorably though the opposition lines, brushing off tackles and invariably making good yardage. We called it the Fatback Play.

And so it was that as Quins camped in the Welsh 22 and the clock ticked down to half time, the ball was passed to Easter, who picked his angle and ran for the line, shrugging off two tackles to score. 14-10 and game on.

Christian Phillips hit back for the Welsh in the first minute of the second half, and for a while it looked like that would be the last score. But Wales had failed to convert and when Ross Chisholm broke out of his own 22 and ran it in under the posts, the deficit was only 2 points.

It was time for the Fatback play again. To say it that Wales fell for it again would be unfair. Receiving the ball from a penalty in the Welsh 22, Easter again blitzed through the defence, generally doing a decent impersonation of the freight train in Inception. Unstoppable.

In the last couple of minutes, Quins upped the pace. Robshaw tapped back an interception in the Welsh 22, Danny tidied up and passed to Sam Smith for another score. Kicking off as the hooter went, Robshaw and Easter applied pressure and the ball fell loose. Ollie Lindsey-Hague gathered and ran in for a final score of 19-36.

In the final match of the first round, the deeply impressive ULR Samurai – last year’s runners up – took Andy Gomarsall’s White Hart Marauders to pieces, 5-38. They would be Quins’ opposition in the next round, but before that there were the quarter-finals of the Plate competition.

 One fine aspect of the cup-and-plate format is that you get to see how the side you defeated does against the side that your next opponents defeated, which helps to calibrate how good your team’s performance actually was. The HFW Wailers ran even more points past Leicester than Irish did (43-7), prompting concern from the LI fans sitting next to me. If something special is happening at Sarries, it wasn’t on show yesterday, as they failed to score against a Falcons side who put three tries past them. The Pups put Leeds to the sword 36-5, raising questions about how good Kenya really were, and the Marauders put up a more spirited performance against Wales AJT but were eventually overhauled fairly easily.

The Quarter Finals of the Cup began with Irish looking committed but occasionally bemused against Exeter. After early tries from Delon and Tagicakibau, the Irish seemed to forget how to attack the Exeter line, and it took Steffon to galvanise them to a final score of 26-7. Nevertheless, Exeter played with effort and invention and were unlucky to score on several occasions; on this evidence they will be a fine addition to the Premiership next season.

England’s Help for Heroes clearly hadn’t been watching the Wasps/Falcons game in the first round, because they too gave Varndell space. Big mistake. Two more tries for the flying Wasp, with one converted. It proved to be the difference between the sides.

Our suspicions about Kenya were proved right. A well organised Army side went 28-0 up, containing the Kenyan speedsters with tight defence. A late consolation try for Kenya made the final scoreline 28-5.

The last quarter final saw Quins face the mightily impressive Samurai. Last season’s beaten finalists and packed with top-class international Sevens players, they were clearly gunning for the title this time around. Nevertheless, Quins started brightly, playing with pace and aggression and using their powerful forward presence to disrupt at scrums and kick-offs. It was first blood to the Samurai, though, when a bodycheck from Easter on the kicker gave Samurai a penalty in the Quins 22. Paul Delportt took on Easter, who couldn’t quite get a strong enough hold to make the tackle. 0-5.

Quins struck back quickly, driving Samurai off their own scrum and breaking upfield for Care to chip the Samurai defence and regather to score. Urdapilleta added the extras for a 7-5 first half lead.

From the second half kick-off, Robshaw disrupted, Lindsey-Hague gathered and the ball found its way out to Ross Chisholm, who scored in the corner. 12-5.

Then Rynd Benjamin broke out for the Samurai and chipped ahead. Danny bizarrely decided to give him a shove rather than back his own pace in the footrace, and Wayne Barnes did not hesitate to show the yellow card. Straight from the penalty, Samurai found New Zealand international Zar Lawrence wide and in space, and the Quins could not get across fast enough.

Quins’ hopes now rested on hanging on for extra time, but it was not to be. Sensing opportunity, Samurai took a scrum against the head and pushed the ball wide. Quins scrambled well to cover but Delportt squeezed past the stretched defence in the corner. 17-12 and, as future results would show, a costly mistake for Quins.

Back in the Plate competition, at least someone was holding the Quins’ end up. After a tight first 5 minutes, HFW Wailers created a three-on-one and put one past the Falcons. Michael Tait took the ball from the kick-off and passed to Charlie Amesbury, who ran powerfully through the Wailers’ defence and outpaced his pursuit to score. The Wailers scored again before half time, but three tries from Manning and one from Micky Youngs put the game beyond their reach. 19-24. Wales AJT cruised past their second invitational side, beating the Pups 14-31.

Back in the Cup, Wasps were also finding yellow cards costly. Will Matthews shoulder charged Jamie Gibson straight from the kick-off, and duly went to the bin. By the time he was back on, Steffon had “scored” twice in the corner. Replays showed that Nick Berry had got a hand under the first one, but it was given anyway, and there was no mistake about the second, created by a break from younger brother Guy. Irish had clearly learned not to give Varndell or Haughton any space, and extended their lead in the second half to win 22-0.

Not to be outdone, Samurai nilled the Army in the second semi. Captain Marius Schoeman sold an outrageous dummy on his opposite number to open the scoring early, followed by two from Collins Injera,  the second run in on the first half hooter from a turnover on Samurai’s own tryline. MJ Mentz and Delportt finished the rout in the second half. 29-0.

Esher then faced London Welsh in the President’s Challenge Cup final, and prevailed 35-14. Championship rivals next season, London Welsh have bolstered their side over the summer with former Quins Waisea Luveniyali, Epi Taione and Josh Drauniniu. I wonder if we’ll continue to lend players to Esher, and if so who we fans would back?

In the Plate final, the sides were evenly matched. Charlie took the ball into a three-on-one and looked like he’d butchered it as the Welsh defence closed in, but found the pass just in time for Will Welch to score. Wales struck back, but couldn’t convert. It was the same pattern in the second half, and after a tense final period with Wales camped in the Budgies’ half, the Falcons held on to win 14-10.

And so we came to the Cup final, a rematch of last year and Samurai were clearly out for revenge. A tense first five minutes saw neither side dominant. Samurai eventually worked their way over for the first score, but Irish struck back through Jonathan Joseph soon after. Despite losing Tagicakibau and Watson to injury (thankfully later reported as minor), Irish took the lead on the stroke of half time with a break from Steffon that opened the field up for Yardy to score.

Samurai put pressure on the Irish from the opening of the second half and a cross-field kick to Kayange led to a pop-pass for Delportt to score. Although Lawrence missed the conversion, Schoemann forced the ball loose at the kick-off, gathered and passed to Lawrence, who released Injera to score. Neither side managed to score for the next 5 minutes, despite Yardy being binned for a high tackle.

As the hooter sounded, the Irish began to work their way upfield, Samurai conceding multiple penalties in an effort to contain the Irish in midfield. Eventually, frustration told and Delon chipped ahead and won the foot race, but couldn’t gather and the Samurai kicked the ball clear to win the title for the first time.

So what can Quins take away from their day? Robshaw missed a couple of tackles, but we can hope that that’s his quota of misses for the season out of the way. Easter makes a surprisingly effective attacking weapon, but wasn’t quite quick enough for Sevens defence. The forwards were industrious and effective, and their disruptive presence at kick off and breakdown bodes well for the season. The team as a whole looked committed and played with a high degree of trust in each other. They were the only team who looked in control of Samurai’s all stars, and it’s reasonable to speculate that they would have at least made the final if they’d won that match. If only Danny had kept his head.

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