By The Prof
December 20 2002

Last week I said that it wasn’t Harlequins’ most successful week and this week was pretty much the same. Admittedly we scored more points than we had the week before and the score line could have been a lot worse but we did still lose. These articles are supposed to be positive so let’s see what we can find. Again the Quins pack did well against a powerful Stade one. The backs made a number of chances but sadly failed to convert them into points. The dozen points we did score came from the boot of Paul Burke and it was good to see him back. Two players that were missing from the line up were Will Greenwood who was ill and didn’t travel to France and Andre Vos who was not registered for the European competition, both will be back for the Powergen Cup game against Leeds on Saturday.

The Quins support in Paris was astonishing more than 400 people travelled over for the match, with some joining us from Belgium and Germany. Hywel – a Caerphilly supporter – even joined us, which just goes to show that the supporters must be doing something right. Another positive is the welcome we received from the Stade supporters’ club – a great bunch of people who showed themselves to be true rugby fans – passionate in the support of their own team and friendly and helpful to visiting fans. If we can all be half as helpful to visitors we will be doing well.

Elsewhere in the club the seconds drew against Wasps in a rainy Aldershot. The pack performed well and out muscled their opponents and Quins had a good lead by half time but concentration lapsed and Wasps were allowed to stage a fightback after the break. Again the support was surprisingly good with a number people returning from Paris going straight on to Aldershot.

The Ladies had a disappointing game against Worcester Ladies IIs and the Amateurs also lost but their pack had a good day in a feisty encounter.

Quins have a number of players returning to the line up this weekend - Greenwood returns after illness, Vos returns after not being registered for Europe, Codling returns from his foot injury as does Duncombe, Gollings returns after two weekends away with the England VIIs, and Woody returns to the bench, Quins are getting close to being able to select from a fullish squad with Luger, Winters, Greenstock, Slemen and Starr still missing.

Finally congratulations to centres Tom Allen & Andy Reay and winger Ugo Monye who were selected for the England U21 'A' squad that played against Wales U21 'A' last Wednesday. Tom Allen played from the start and Ugo Monye came on after 74 minutes and Andy Reay was unlucky not to have been selected after a number of man of the match awards for his performances in Quins’ U21s and 2ndXV matches. Allen scored one try in the 28-5 victory.

Congratulations too to Chris Cracknell who was selected for the England U19s squad.