It might have been much closer had former Quin, Jeremy Staunton not had a nightmare return to the Stoop missing four kicks out of five before that duty passed to another kicker who proved no more successful.   From the start Quins sought to put pressure on their opponents and play the game in Wasps’ territory and for some minutes they succeeded until an attempted grubber kick from Greenwood failed and Wasps regained possession.   The ball was passed rapidly left to Mbu who cut inside but was unable to penetrate the defence but Quins conceded a penalty for offside in front of the posts.  Staunton kicked the points and, for the only time in the match, Wasps led  0 – 3 after six minutes. 

Both sides were committing the sort of handling errors that we saw from the match on Saturday but from the resulting scrums Quins were the stronger and more organised, allowing them to press towards the Wasps’ try-line and a good run down the wing by Masson saw Quins gain a penalty for offside which Jarvis kicked to level the scores after nine minutes. 

Then a searing run from Simon Keogh took play deep into the Wasps twenty-two and as the ball was recycled a cross-field kick from Jarvis to the right wing was picked up by Kiba Richards to touch down for the first of the four tries.  Jarvis converted from the touchline to give Quins the lead at 10 – 3.  Wasps tried hard to get back on terms but were not assisted by two penalty misses by Staunton, one from 40 metres and later another much easier kick. 

Then an excellent run by Tom Guest took play almost to the Wasps’ line but the ball was lost in the resultant maul as Quins sought to drive over.  But Quins won the resultant scrum against the head and Easter dived over which Jarvis converted to give Quins a 17 – 3 lead after twenty-five minutes. 

The lead might have been even greater when an excellent cross kick by Jarvis found Greenwood whose pass on to Richards was adjudged forward with the wing three paces from the try-line.  Wasps regained possession an with a series of pick and drives began to press the Quins defence.  When Quins did regain possession a huge, high kick was mishandled by Staunton to give Quins a scrum just outside the Wasps twenty-two. But Quins lost possession and the ball was moved rapidly out to the right wing, Thom Evans who showed great speed to score in the corner. The conversion attempt by Staunton, from the touchline, failed and half time arrived with the score at 17 – 8.

Both sides made substitutions at half-time and during the remainder of the match.  Greenwood went off, Keogh moved to the wing from scrum-half when Duncan James came on, Aston Croall had to move to hooker and there were others that it was difficult to follow.  Wasps changes saw Staunton move from full-back to fly half and Brooks from fly-half to scrum half and take over the kicking duties. 

Wasps opened the half with considerable pressure on Quins’ defence.  A good run by Staunton saw the ball go out to Mbu and only fine defence held him out.  Quins had to dig deep to keep their line intact and finally George Robson earned a yellow card.  The resultant penalty from 30 metres and in front of the posts was taken by Brooks and hit the left post to rebound out.  But Wasps maintained pressure and with Quins still a man short, Wasps won a line-out on the Quins’ twenty-two and finally Mbu crashed over in the left corner.  The conversion was missed but at 17 – 13 Wasps were very much back in the match. 

Then after a poor clearance kick found Charlie Amesbury in space he was able to put Tom Guest away on the right and he scored the try from thirty metres out with his winger still unmarked outside him.  Jarvis converted. 24 – 13 became the score as the match moved into the last quarter.

But now Quins were back to fifteen men as Robson returned.  Finally with five minutes remaining another inch-perfect kick found Keogh on the right wing. He started for the line, broke a tackle and ran on 40 metres to touch down under the posts.  Jarvis converted. The bonus point and the victory were sealed and the final score was 31 – 13.

In all it was not a bad performance.  Handling and ball skills need to be improved and unforced errors eliminated but  for many it was the first real competitive match of the season and these matters require game time.  The scrum worked well and in the first half they were clearly dominant.  Simon Keogh was pretty sharp at scrum-half and disrupted the Wasps scrum half on more than a couple of occasions.  He showed his usual turn of speed and his try was as good a piece of finishing as one could want to see reminding one of his winning try in the Parker Pen final.  Adrian Jarvis, too, had a good game.  He made the odd error at a restart but otherwise ran the game well and his two kicks to the wing both brought tries.

Coach Colin Osborne was not displeased with the performance.  The team had worked hard and kept their shape.  There were obvious handling errors but that is inevitable when you try to play fast running rugby at this time of the season.  The pack had done well with at least two who had not trained with the team and were still learning the calls late in the afternoon. 

In the other two matches played last night Bristol beat Bath 27 – 22 and London Irish beat Saracens 34 – 33 on a last minute penalty. The next A team match is against Saracens next Monday, 10^th September at Old Albanians RFC.

Teams:

NEC HARLEQUINS:
15 Charlie Amesbury; 14 Kiba Richards, 13 Will Greenwood, 12 Mel Deane, 11 Tosh Masson; 10 Adrian Jarvis, 9, Simon Keogh; 1 Aston Croall, 2 Tani Fuga, 3 Lorne Ward, 4 Kevin Burke, 5, George Robson, 6 Tom Guest, 7 Chris Robshaw, 8, Nick Easter. 
Replacements  16. ??, 17 Alex Rogers, 18, James Inglis, 19 Darren Clayton, 20 Duncan James, 21  Justin Jones, 22 Luther Marais.

LONDON WASPS:
15 Jeremy Staunton; 14 Joe Mbu, 13 Rob Laird, 12 Rob Hoadley, 11 Thom Evans, 10 James Brooks, 9  James Honeyben; 1 Ali Mackenzie, 2,  Rob Webber, 3 Tom French, 4 Matt Corker, 5 George Skivington, 6 John Paul Filler, 7 Gareth Chamberlain, 8 Mark Lock.
Replacements: 16 Peter Bracken, 17 Hugo Ellis, 18 Dominic Waldouck, 19 Ben Dormer, 20 Giles Pryor

Referee: T. Beddowes.

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