The club had obviously made an effort to accommodate the crowd, parking was good (free and very close) and the pitch looked excellent.  Others (not driving) may be able to comment on the food and drink.

The Quins team was pretty much as announced, with the exception of Vass, ruled out with a minor strain, replaced by Steve So’oialo and Simon Keogh starting on the wing ahead of George Harder. From the Academy, Chris Robshaw started in the back row and Mike Brown, Charlie Amesbury and Jordan Turner-Hall were all on the bench.  Saracens had a pretty strong squad, all as announced, with Shane Byrne on the bench, although they (and we) missed a certain Frenchman and a would-be union player.  The referee was Ashley Rowden.

The match was played to the normal two 40 minute halves but there were numerous planned or injury related changes of personnel.  I struggled to keep up with the Quins team and must apologise to Saracens for having little clue who was in their team by the end!  Any way Quins started with Mehrtens drop out, followed by some long range kicking, culminating in a follow up chase by Keogh forcing Skirving into touch about 10 metres out.  

Good Sarries defence kept Quins out and a good clearance resulted in a line out to Sarries midway in the Quins half.  Quins were penalised at the line out and Glen Jackson put Sarries 3-0 ahead.  However, Quins came back and an excellent penalty kick to touch was followed by some drives and recycling until Mehrtens released Ugo to dive over in the (wrong) corner.  The conversion was missed but Quins were 3-5 up

Sarries carried the game back into the Quins half and a period of pressure resulted in an attempted clearance charge down and a try for Sarries (Seymour?), converted for a 10-5 lead after 20 minutes. 

The Sarries pressure continued; Mel Deane took a knock and was replaced by Jordan Turner-Hall.  A penalty to Sarries was converted by Jackson but Quins took the game back into the Sarries half and, despite some unsure line out work, a penalty kicked to the corner was followed by some excellent driving by the pack and Lorne Ward went over near the corner. This was converted and the half time score was 13-12. 

At half time Harder, Brown, Diprose, Fuga and Sheriff came on but the Sarries scrum replacements seemed to shore up their pack more and after a some good Quins defence, sarries moved the ball quickly wide for the winger to score.  This was right in front of a group of geezers and Glen Jackson expressed particular admiration for Prof’s trousers, before missing the conversion.  18-12 to Sarries.  But Quins came back again and after a series of drives to the line, So’oialo saw the pass to Mehrtens cut off, but turned to find no one between him and the line and jogged over and under the posts – back in front at 18-19.

Play fluctuated, with defences keeping out good attacking moves until Quins kicked a penalty for an attacking line out; from the resulting play the ball was moved swiftly along the line for Ugo to go over in the corner. Conversion missed but now 18-24 to Quins. 

More changes were made with Bouza, Jarvis and Amesbury coming on. Sarries generally had the better of the remaining period but the Quins defence held firm, with Turner-Hall particularly impressive (surely he’s not seventeen?). 

A number of props came and went (Jones appeared to get a knee injury and was helped off) and Brown was clattered into, Keogh came back to the wing. 

Quins gave away penalties and eventually Sarries managed (with the help of a knock forward?) to breach the Quins defence.  The try was converted with the last kick of the match for a 25-24 win for the hosts.

So what to make of that? Well, in terms in my first objective, Quins looked very much on a par with their GP opposition – they scored more tries, although at times their tackling was not as conclusive as one might like and some of the lineouts were poor.  The forwards held their own in the loose, and at times the backs looked very sharp.  To me, the key feature was the academy players.  None of them looked out of depth and if Richards and co. can bring these lads through, some of our senior players may find it hard to hold down a regular place!  I am somewhat looking forward to next Saturday…..

Saracens:
15 Dan Scarbrough, 14 Nnamdi Obi, 13 Ben Johnston, 12 Kevin Sorrell, 11 Richard Haughton, 10 Glen Jackson, 9 Alan Dickens, 1 Nick Lloyd, 2 Matt Cairns, 3 Cobus Visagie, 4 Kris Chesney, 5 Hugh Vyvyan (Capt.), 6 Taine Randell, 7 David Seymour, 8 Ben Skirving
Replacements: Shane Byrne, Ben Broster, Kevin Yates, Alex Sanderson, Iain Fullarton, Ben T Russell, Mosese Rauluni, Tom Ryder, Ben J Russell, Dan Harris, Tevita Vaikona

NEC Harlequins:
15. Tom Williams, 14. Simon Keogh, 13. Gavin Duffy, 12. Mel Deane, 11. Ugo Monye, 10. Andrew Mehrtens, 9. Steve So’oialo, 1. Ceri Jones, 2. Jimmy Richards, 3. Lorne Ward, 4. Jim Evans, 5. Simon Miall, 6. Chris Robshaw, 7. Andre Vos (Capt.), 8. Nick Easter
Replacements: Tani Fuga, Ricky Nebbett, Pablo Bouza, Luke Sherriff, Tony Diprose, Adrian Jarvis, Jordan Turner-Hall, Charlie Amesbury, Mike Brown, Aston Croall, George Harder

Scorers:
Saracens: Tries: Seymour, Sanderson Jackson Conversions: Jackson (2) Penalties: Jackson (2)
NEC Harlequins: Tries: Monye (2), Ward, So'oialo Conversions: Mehrtens (2)

Referee: Ashley Rowden

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon