Bluntly, most of the first half was forgettable stuff. Quins definitely had the best of it, but the only scores were two penalties apiece as half time approached. With two minutes to go, after Charlie’s second penalty, Quins kicked a long restart and the ball went loose on our 22. Neil Briggs grabbed it and broke upfield, outpacing the Quins defence and feeding James Gaskell, who sped in on the right. Charlie converted and the stalemate was broken as we went in at half time 13-6 up.

We swap Kerr for O’Donnell at half time, but we seem to struggle in the scrum, conceding a couple of penalties in the first five minutes, one of which Nick Evans kicks. We settle a bit, and Charlie kicks a penalty to restore our seven point lead. Puzzlingly, at this point and after just ten minutes on the pitch, O’Donnell is withdrawn and replaced by Martin Halsall.

Quins make progress down the left but knock on just ten metres out. However, we are really struggling in the scrum. Sisa breaks off the back and scrambles the ball to Charlie. His hurried clearance deflects off a Quins player and bobbles into the in-goal area. Fortunately, it goes dead, just ahead of a diving Nick Evans. Quins gain possession from the restart and start to work their way upfield. However, a crunching Sisa tackle knocks the ball loose, we kick on and Quins scramble the ball into touch 25 metres out. We win the lineout, Dwayne Peel creates a gap and some clever play by Matthew Tait sees Ben Cohen over the line through a congested defence. Charlie misses the conversion but, at 21-9 with almost an hour gone, that must surely be enough?

Harlequins aren’t beaten yet, though. They build a good attacking position but come up just short, and lose the ball into touch just five metres from our line. Dwayne Peel kicks high from the lineout, but Ugo Monye runs the ball back to maintain pressure on us, allowing Tom Guest to batter his way over. Rory Clegg, on for the injured Nick Evans, converts and Quins are back in the game. We really start to struggle at the scrum and, when we do have possession, the Quins pressure makes us live dangerously. In the end, that pressure tells, our scrimmage is mashed and Quins kick through. Mark Cueto falls and we kick high. Quins run the ball back and win a penalty 20 metres out. With the clock running down, they take the scrum, run the ball right, and batter at our line. We just keep them out, but concede a scrum 5. Quins pass the ball out to Ugo Monye, running from deep, but a last ditch tackle from Charlie Hodgson just puts him into touch- mind you, the long delay until the TMO decided it was no try was a heart-stopper.

So well done the team- three wins over Quins in the last month is quite an achievement, and this win was an important one because it keeps us moving along in the Premiership. The scrum seems to be a worry, although the lineout is going better than it was. We are starting to look dangerous with ball in hand and, while we’re clearly still a work in progress, we are definitely going in the right direction. I thought Dwayne Peel was a fair enough choice as Man of the Match in a game when we didn’t seem to have an obviously outstanding player. I’d perhaps have gone for Charlie, that renowned defender, for his try- and match-saving tackle at the death, though.

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