London Irish certainly looked better in the tight five and were a bit more aggressive at the breakdown, some of this may have had something to do with the fresh legs the team from Reading were able to bring on half way through (they changed the whole team), Quins having only one fit hooker available (Jimmy Richards) wasn’t exactly ideal either but hopefully James Hayter and Tani Fuga will be available when the season starts proper.

London Irish had much more of the ball than Quins thanks mainly to their front five(s) and when they had the ball they recycled pretty well too. Quins defence was solid for the majority of the game with two of the tries coming from individual errors from Quin’s players.

A large number of the astonishingly quiet home crowd may not have seen a number of the players before – not only the new signings but also the Academy players. James Ingliss looked good in the lineout, he is a great talent and did not disappoint, neither did his replacement, also from the Academy, George Robson.

Ian Vass showed some great skills, harrying ex-Quin Ben Willis, his pass was generally accurate and fast, his defence was good, all in all he looks like a very good signing.

The first Quin to leave the pitch was, returning front row, Ricky Nebbett who was elbowed in the face and went off for some treatment and new boy Aston Croall saw his first taste of action in a Quins shirt.

Nick Easter, who performed well throughout, looked like he may be the first person on the score sheet when he intercepted a ball to sprint 80m towards the LI line but sadly Chris White judged him to be offside. From the penalty close to Quins’ line LI put in a crossfield kick that Barratt misjudged to let the visiting team put the first points on the board. 0-7, 26 mins. This was the only score in the first half hour third.

Quins made six changes taking off Mel Deane (who looked sharp and back to his best), Adrian Jarvis, Ceri Jones, James Ingliss, Simon Miall and Nick Easter, replacing them with Academy lads Tosh Masson and George Robson and new signings Aston Croall, Kevin Burke, Pablo Bouza (who must still be jet lagged after his recent arrival from Argentina) and the player that everyone will be looking forward to seeing – Andrew Mehrtens.

Mike Brown scored the first Quins try after the ball ricocheted backwards and forwards, he showed great pace to get to the ball first to breach the line, Mehrtens kicked his first conversion to level the scores 7-7, 35 minutes.

Just four minutes after Mehrtens got on the score sheet another couple of times, firstly ending a great passage of play and one time Quins managed to keep hold of the ball for a few phases. Forwards and backs alike showed great handling to get the ball to Vass who put in a deft chip through that Mehrtens followed up and beat Delon Armitage to touch the ball down, he added the extras himself to put Quins 14-7 ahead, 39 mins.

Just three minutes later after a bit of scrappy play Dawson scored for the visitors, the conversion was made too. 14-14, 42 minutes.

Two minutes later London Irish changed the whole of their team, the new set of 30 legs certainly had an effect as LI scored two more tried and managed to keep Quins at bay.

Masson (Quinssa bursary recipient in 2004/5) showed great pace and an eye for the gap all the time he was on the pitch and he forced a knock on with a find crunching tackle.

The new legs and supremacy in the front five saw LI win a scrum against the head, in the following play Kiba Richards, who showed that he will be pushing for a place on the wing this season, was injured which meant Will Greenwood came on at outside centre, 55 minutes.

After the second third George Robson, Ian Vass, Andre Vos, Aston Croall, Mike Brown and George Harder (who looked in very good form) were pulled off by the management and were replaced by Simon Miall, Nick Easter, Ceri Jones, Darren Clayton, Duncan James and Adrian Jarvis (who came back on at fullback).

Within the next ten minutes London Irish scored and converted two further tries, one from Laidlaw, the other from Danaher. Laidlaw’s try came from good recycling that built up a big overlap on the large blindside which was well used. The second came from a Quins mistake, Duncan James passed fast but far too low to Mehrtens who missed the ball which was then kicked through, picked up and scored by the visitors.

Some good individual breaks by Quins players: Tosh Masson, Duncan James, Darren Clayton and Will Greenwood, took the ball downfield but the support wasn’t in the right place at the right time, that mixed with good scramble defence kept Quins from getting on the scoresheet again - even though they got over the line again the ball couldn’t be grounded.

The final score was 14-28.

What can Quins take from the run out, well while LI looked better in the tight both sides were relatively equally matched, Quins were missing the 7s players who will be at HQ tomorrow - Luke Sherriff, Chris Robshaw, Jim Evans, Tom Guest, Steve So’oialo,  Simon Keogh, Gavin Duffy, Tom Williams,  Charlie Amesbury and Ugo Monye who would undoubtedly have added some more pace and skill to the Quins squad.

London Irish used a lot more players that Quins so it isn’t surprising that the visitors looked sharper at times.

The Academy lads all looked pretty good and I am sure we can expect to see them all being used at some point during the season. The forwards looked a little slower to the breakdown than their opposite numbers and when they got there they looked a bit less aggressive.

What the first choice in the pack will be is still up for debate, Jimmy Richards didn’t look as visible as one would have expected Tani Fuga or James Hayter to be, the second rows all looked pretty good with the youngsters putting up a good show and Kevin Burke showing some great skills and amazing mobility for such a big lad.

Easter looked very good again in the back row and there was a great battle between Olivier Magne and Andre Vos to be seen.

Ian Vass and Andrew Mehrtens both showed some fabulous skills but also made a few mistakes, they will undoubtedly form a better partnership given more time to get used to each other.

Although the amount of ball they received was less than 50% the backs certainly looked like they were willing to give it a go and some fine skills were on show.

A loss is a loss but there were many many more positives in this game then there were to be taken from the first pre-season last year when Quins lost to Bedford.

Next week sees Quins visiting newly promoted Bristol Rugby, the team will have trained together for another week, the 7s players won’t be missing from the squad and Mike Worsley, James Hayter and Tani Fuga will either be available or will at least be a week closer to returning.

There are two more ‘friendlies’ before things get serious with the away trip to Pertemps Bees in Solihull at the beginning of September.

Come on you Quins!

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