By The Prof
January 30 2003

So the predictions of knocking Leicester out of the cup for the third year running all came to nothing, we lost, at home, the first time that had happened against British opposition since we lost to Leeds on the 14th September. But was it a terrible performance as some people on this site’s message board have said?
The answer from my point of view is a categorical no.

We played a Leicester team that was out for revenge and who had the luxury of selecting from pretty much a full squad – ‘Wiggie’ Healey being their only first choice player to be missing. We had eight players missing, a number of them who would be first choice in the starting 15.

So what of the 16 players who turned out for Quins?
The pack played pretty well and only started to run out of a bit of energy right at the end after Leicester had replaced three of their forwards. We missed Gomez at tight head but Jon Dawson performed pretty well against the formidable combination of Tournaire and Garforth. Fuga performed well too, his handling in the loose was very good and but for one fumble he might have made an interception. Jase had his usual good game and put in one thumping tackle on Johnson which was a delight to see.

Although some people have been saying the lineouts weren’t good I think they were, I can only remember us losing one or two and we stole a similar number from Leicester – this remember against some of the best lineout exponents in England: Johnson, Kay, Corry & Moody. Leicester only threw to Kay one whereas we varied our line more than ever before – Davison and Diprose were used in the first half and in the second half Codling and Diprose were the receivers. There were also a few attempts at short throws to Bemand running round the front of the line and Fuga was often used on the loop behind the lineout.

Not only was their lineout play good but Codling and Davison were very good in the loose too, Codling made one great break and Davison put in a performance that in my opinion should have earned him the Quins’ man of the match (and kwin didn’t even put him in the poll list!!)

The back row of Ace, Vos and Dippy did a good job against their opposite numbers, all three of them showed good handling and if only Dippy had decided to do a normal pass rather than passing it behind the defender Ace might have been in for a try in the right hand corner. It was disappointing that Ace was binned for retaliating against Johnson right in front of the referee, but if he deserved to go to the bin (which he did) why weren’t Tournaire and Kay binned too? Kay could have been binned for throwing a punch at Evans and also for throwing such a poor one too.


Bemand, who was described as ‘diminutive’ by the commentator, and Burke put in pretty good performances, both trying to break the gain line a number of times. Their performances were probably even better considering the conditions, ie the facts that the scrum wasn’t always on the front foot and the Leicester back row and half backs were so close to the offside line that the weary eyes of this writer thought they may have even strayed over it a number of times – it’s hard to believe I know!

The centre partnership of Greenwood and Satala worked pretty well with Will making a number of half breaks in the first half and Big Bill having his best first team game for Quins so far. In the second half both put in a number of good tackles with Shaggy putting in some vital ones within our own 22.

Luger showed pace and power again as well as very good handling, since he is usually an ‘out and out winger’ in the mould of a Leonard we often just see him sprinting but in the last couple of games he has been used in the middle of the pitch and we have had a chance to see his ball skills more.

At the back Nate had another good game, although getting a few more successful touch kicks would be nice,

Jim Evans again showed his athleticism when he came on to replace Davison – he is certainly going to be one to watch in years to come.

So all in all it wasn’t a poor performance, we just weren’t quite there on the day. With people like Starr and Duncombe coming back this week we should have more options on the bench in coming weeks.

Elsewhere in the club the U21s lost against Newcastle despite going up 0-15 by half time. The Amateurs lost against London French in what was a bit of a grudge match after the exiles had been found to be playing unregistered players in previous weeks, the Cavaliers also lost a closely fought match against Old Mid-Whitgiftian’s II - who are in London II league. The only winners this week were the Ladies team who won a low scoring but hard fought game against Plymouth.

Finally there have been a couple of very enjoyable Quins and Heineken sponsored pub nights with players, staff and supporters all letting their hair down and having a good time (and spreading the friendly face of Harlequins to boot).

This Saturday we have a chance of ending our long run of away losses in the league – let’s hope we can do it this time.