By Steve Melbourne and Lucian Roberts
September 11 2003

The Amateurs played their first match of the season on Saturday in the Powergen Junior Vase. Coach Steve Melbourne and player Lucian Roberts comment on the action.

The Quins Amateur team made a solid start to their Powergen junior Vase campaign with a 36-3 victory over Surrey 2 side, Lightwater.

In sunny conditions Quins made hard work of the first half finishing 3 - 7 ahead. Our sometime strengths of close support in open play, which the team had worked hard on in training, had yet to come into play as the team again and again tried to drive through the heavier Lightwater forwards. The Scrum was a ‘to and fro’ affair as we were pushed and wheeled at will by the snap shove but managed to disrupt the opposition’s ball on several occasions. The lineout remained strong but yielded little clean ball as we tried to catch and drive too often.

In the loose individuals such as Matthew Stevens and Andy Robinson made headway, more often than not to find little in the way of support. All of this conspired to produce a disjointed performance in the first half punctuated with turnovers and stuttering phase play.

A penalty to Lightwater put them in the lead 3 – 0. Thankfully Brandon van der Westerhuizen reminded the others how the game can be played just before half time: from a set piece on the left wing, up inside the enemy 22, the ball was spun out quickly to the backs and Brandon, playing at centre, took the ball from Ben Wigley on an angled run that checked the defence. Using the merest of sidesteps he swept past the cover tackle and left their full back wrong footed and the ball under the posts. Converted by Mark Davies, the score was 3 – 7 going into the break.

The halftime talk certainly focused the team on the limitations of their game. The front five would bind lower in the tight. The jumpers would catch and give the ball rather than catch and drive. All were reminded that rugby ought to be a team game and when someone makes a break their teammates should follow, even if it is just out of curiosity.

In the bright sunshine Lightwater began to wilt as the Quins came into their game. In successive drives the forwards and backs conspired to produce flowing moves interspersed with grinding rucks and mauls that sapped the opposition. Terry Newman, in as a replacement in the front row for Tom Cooper, exemplified this with a surging run up around the half way line that saw him trundle through a number of tackles and what can best be described as dummy tackles. After twenty-five or so yards he was finally brought down. In the first half such a run would have had 'turn-over' written all over it, indeed last season Terry might have surprised everyone with a speculative pass over his head. Instead he held up the ball as support flowed around him. The ball was recycled and in a couple of further phases the try line had been breached. This spurred Quins into action as the players became more confident to utilise all the new moves learnt in training.

Kwasi Appah (replacement right wing) ran in two tries, Andrew Lawrence opened his account for the season with a fine break of six or seven metres, Phil Ah Sun showed that Brandon was not alone with a run from full back that scythed through the Lightwater backs untouched. And Matthew Stevens showed off his technical skills with both a try and two conversions in the second half.

New coach Steve Melbourne was generally satisfied with the team’s effort, acknowledging that while there was still a lot to work on, he agreed that the boys improved significantly in the second half. He particularly praised the support play that the team has been practising during the last month. “Once we got away from taking on the opposition up front and took it a mere 3-5m away from the break down we started to find gaps. In the 2nd half we did this and the results speak for themselves.”

The Amateurs meet Mill Hill this Saturday 13 September in their first match playing in the Herts/Middlesex 2 league. The next Powergen Junior Vase match is scheduled for Saturday 20 September.

Harlequin Amateur squad:
15) Philip Ah Sun
14) Russell Wigginton
13) Mark Davies
12) Brandon vd Westerhuizen
11) Stuart Houghton
10) Ben Wigley Captain
9) Matt Pead
1) Andrew Lawrence
2) Dan Comacho
3) Tom Cooper
4) Dave Wells
5) Ed Sterck
6) Phill Thompsom
7) Andy Robinson Vice captain
8) Matt Stevens
Subs
Colin Crowther
Terry Newman.
Nicholas Wootton
Kwasi Appah