By The Prof
October 31 2003

Well the display was better than the week before, and it was certainly a lot better than last season’s equivalent fixture. Quins were down 30-9 with about 10 or so minutes to go after gifting Sale (sorry Sharks) two tries, but the team didn’t let their heads drop, they kept playing and were rewarded with two late tries, Keogh scored the first with a typically nippy and jinking run, he is certainly becoming a favourite of the fans. The final try came from a beautiful run by Pat Sanderson, he came from deep, at pace and ran a beautiful line, broke a couple of tackles before offloading to Moore who scored in the corner. The conversion would have given us a bonus point but sadly it was narrowly missed. Vos again showed hiw worth with a fine display of back row play.

The second team game on Monday saw three first team players coming back from injury – Chris Bell, Josh Taumalolo and Karl Rudzki. They all played a big part in the six try win over Northampton Wanderers. Chris Bell partnered Henry Barratt well in the centres and scored a wonderful try running a full 60m to score. Taumalolo came on as a replacement and did enough to be called up to the first team starting line up next week. It was good to see Rudzki back too, lock is a position that we are short of in the firsts and his abrasive play will surely be needed soon. I was very impressed with Karl, there was one point where he was being ‘given attention’ by two Northampton forwards but he didn’t retaliate, he looked in surprise at the touch judge who didn’t flag for the foul play and he just got on with it. Although the first team players were back from injury the players who really stood out were the youngsters – Tom Williams, Adrian Jarvis, Henry Barratt, Cameron Dott and kai Horstmann. Dott, who will again be on the bench for the Leeds match because of continuing injuries to Ace and Tani played well and he is tagged as a star of the future. Horstmann gave an athletic display at number eight. Barratt made some beautiful runs that found space for other backs. Jarvis gave a fine display at 10 and showed his great passing skills, I would say he has possibly the best pass at Quins at the moment. Tom Williams scored three tries, all of them high quality, his first one being a fantastic display of individual skills where he ran about 20 yards through what seemed to be most of Northampton’s defence.

On the injjury front a number of players are coming back and in a couple of weeks time it might just be Simon Miall who is unavailable.

There was good news from the World Cup, Jase started his 100th match and got another cap for his collection and Will Greenwood has returned to Australia after Caro’s operation was successful. Jase also became a father for the third time – our congratulations go to him and his increasing family.

Quinssa raised a load of money for the BPA with a Balloon Race at half time, well done to Barbara for organising it.

Finally congratulations must go to the Wanderers (the Amateurs’ second XV) who scored 106 points (16 tries) to beat Thamesians 2nd XV