This was no steal: Quins 17 Leeds 13
By Nigel_B
December 23 2002
Guts, courage, commitment and concentration are the first words I must put down. Elementary errors that the management excuse with the weather conditions and lacking imagination are the next. As I left the stand, I turned round to the steward and said "today cost me two years of my life".
We won 17-13 but……
Was it pretty? Did the match flow? Was there lots of running rugby? Ball in hand?
My answer in one word - no.
Ev's comment at the end "Today was a great advert for summer rugby". Would you prefer fixtures to be played in the summer? Is this a subject for a poll? Put a message on the board and I am sure those that can will organise a poll if the demand is there. So what happened?
We arrived, all 20 of us, the lad and his mates are in the North Stand, friends in the East leaving me to take my seat in the West. I am wearing the trews with a bright yellow jacket and a "Support the Stoop 2" T sitting amongst barbour coated (I also own one!) fans, I now have a problem. Dictaphone is in my bag - do I use it and pass the tape to my secretary to type up and risk upsetting people around me as I ramble to myself? 5 minutes before kick off I think why not use one of the press seats? Good idea but too late, perhaps kwin can have a word with Scotty to see if one can be made available for future matches - assuming the reports are OK? Decide to write up notes. Hence a little longer to reach the site due to my lack of typing ability.
The hype and expectation of the Cup.
Yes Leeds beat us in September but we trounced them in May.
They have had a poor run for the last few matches.
Today, for the first time this season Nick, Burkey and Shaggy are out
together and what a back row (my selection - thanks Evs for following my
advice). Was I confident of a Quins
victory - YES.
Leeds kick off and in the first minute "the referee's
a lander" awards Quins with a penalty (shock and horror, atonement for
earlier misdemeanours). Burkey
punts into touch at the halfway mark, Tani (hit your mark I think) (he does)
throws in and Quins forwards in a rolling maul (Thing of Beauty "TOB"
- to happen many times), brought down and Mr L another pen and Burkey misses the
first, slightly to the right.
OK things are looking positive. (The negative is I am now
halfway down the first page of 16 pages of notes). A 22 restart and Nate (what
safe hands - I counted he caught 8 and only missed one which he made sure went
back) is under it, but then kicks out on the full.
Leeds offload sharply (pic: kwin)
Codders puts in a great tackle we win ball only for Tani to take it into contact and go down with a poor body position and found guilty of holding on - he had no option. Evs please note he was not the only player to go down with his body on the wrong side of the ball.
6 minutes in, up steps BvS 0-3.
The next five minutes seem crucial.
Nick puts a lovely box kick down the line and into touch, lovely move
with Nick, Burkey and Will working well then turnover.
How many times did we take the ball into contact and lose possession?
Leeds gain possession ball back in to Quins territory and
Tani on a 1 in 3 situation is penalised - no argument Mr L. 0-6
13 minutes in Leeds get penalised and it goes 3-6.
Looking at my notes, the next 30 minutes is all Quins - except for Scarborough's “interception” on the 20th which he ran home (it was on the east side of the pitch so I missed how he actually gained possession) and the scoreboard read 3-13. But when Scarborough did score who was running to make the cover tackle off the right wing, Pat. Where were Nathan and Matt?
The scoreboard read 3 - 13 (or did it?) (pic: kwin)
Seriously, the quality of Quin's possession and territory for the next 20 minutes is outstanding. Sustained pressure but they are just unable to make it through the last 5. Particular highlights are the second penalty miss by Burkey, we all thought it was a given but the kick hit the post and bounced back!
There were three excellent rolling mauls (ToB) - it really
caused Leeds a lot of problems and it is disappointing the touch judges do not
seem capable of talking to the referee when infringements occur.
SL is not blind but he cannot be everywhere.
At this time I will put my finger (I'm typing) out and
Dippy was my MOTM - once again. Don't
want to influence any of you people but whilst Andre was excellent I just felt
the tactician in those rolling mauls was Diprose.
He caught balls in the line out and seemed to mastermind the drive, in
the 24th minute it seemed we gained 30 yards.
Today the forwards dominated and played very well.
The last quarter of the first half was played out in the
North West part of the pitch. Quins
pressure continued and it was only silly turnovers that allowed Leeds any
possession. 32 minutes in and there
is a penalty, Frodo steps up (where has he been till now) and sticks an
absolutely brill kick down the line.
Again we gain possession and it is typical "use it or lose it" Leeds are able to stop Quins without infringing, remember Steve reffed it as he saw it. But "ToB" returns and this time Steve does award a penalty,
The moment Lander's back is turned, Fuga hides the ball (pic:
kwin)
Burkey puts it
cleanly through the posts 6-13. Until
that moment I was beginning to have doubts, we were not able to run or fight
through them.
Two minutes later the whistle is blown for the end of the
first half, the infringement – a knock forward by Shaggy.
The match restarts with Quins kick.
A couple of line outs, the first well taken by Big Bill, but then Leeds
penalise and SL has a word with Shelley – but no yellow card.
The game proceeded to see saw one way and then the next.
Turnover and losing the ball in the tackle allowed the other team the
opportunity to make two phases and then kick away possession.
Leeds move the ball across from East to West suddenly a gap appears, the
ball is passed “FORWARD!!!!” we yell as one, the TJ ignores us, fortunately
SL had spotted it – although did not signal it.
Quins scrum down.
The scoreboard ticked over (or did it?) (pic: kwin)
Now it was difficult to see from the scoreboard whether 15
(I think) or 18 minutes had been played of the second half, but there was no way
of seeing the score!
However, on the 57th minute what a sight.
Woody, Daws, Jim, Ace and the Jeweller are on for Tani, Laurent, Big
Bill, Pat and Moore. I cannot
recall seeing five substitutions at the same time.
The next minute Scott Bemand having already been on once for a blood
injury to Nick, does substitute him.
There is no doubt the energy of these new players
revitalised the team and gave a lot of momentum. Having that depth on the bench was fortunate.
The timing of the substitutions was also critical with 25 minutes to play
there was an opportunity to make an impact.
Afterwards, Evs admitted that he did not agree with substitutions at the
78th minute “it didn’t achieve anything”.
The play moves back into the Leeds half where we start to
see some gamesmanship develop, Regan tying his laces taking the clock down.
Our scrum, ball moved back and a long kick sees it bounce off the corner
flag and a 22 is correctly awarded. (Surprising
number of spectators did not know the rule).
Next, the moment we have all been waiting for, our favourite centre,
Woody takes possession and runs into contact, the ball is recycled and Nathan
bounces it into touch just outside their 22.
Their line out, we did not contest the jump, but Leeds infringe and
Burkey slots home his fourth 12 – 13.
10 minutes left to play and the crowd has really got behind
the team. This was edge of the seat
stuff and I was certain we were going to score it was just how and when.
I think everyone felt like that. On
the 75th minute the ball is passed back to Ben who has a go at
dropping goal, the conditions are dire and he does not get hold of it, but he is
playing with options.
Another bout of ping pong ensues, but on the 79th
minute (not the 82nd as Phil Davies said after the match), Jeweller
picks up and passes to Codders, the ball is moved into the middle for Will and
we all spot Frodo with a clear run in, but has Will?. Everyone stands as one - the ball is passed - it is in the
air an age, Frodo catches and runs in 17-13. YES!
Burkey misses the conversion, his third miss of the day.
The match is restarted but Leeds never looked like coming
back and they don’t. Well done
lads, it wasn’t pretty, but it was a win.
Afterwards Evs came to the press conference with a relieved smile on his
face. Did he ever think the match
in any doubt? At 3-13 down there was some concern since Leeds had a good
defence, very hard to go round them and very hard to go through them and it was
difficult to see where the necessary scores were going to come from.
But Leeds did not play rugby until the last five minutes.
Technically Evs accepted there were a lot of errors. However, on balance
he was pleased, “it was the first game we have played this year with anything
like the top 22. Concentration was excellent.
As far as the substitutions were concerned, “Rob is a player who can truck the
ball up”, Nick looked like he missed some match practice, but 21 players
played a major part in the game, not 15. As
far as the try was concerned Evs admitted he would have shot Frodo if he had
dropped the ball and Paul said he would have done the same to Will if he
hadn’t passed the ball.
During the conference one journalist seemed to dominate and asked Evs “How important to Quins was the win” verbatim response “that is an unusually good question *** (name removed to protect the innocent) – it was very important to win. The same journalist followed up with a supplementary which did not get the same degree of praise. Indeed there were some daft questions asked. But Mark went on to answer the question that should have been asked and confirmed the season was disjointed and that it would have been difficult to keep momentum going if Quins had lost today. Well they didn’t and now the draw for the next round is up and what a peach. I for one will be there, I hope you are too. To his credit Phil Davies though was magnanimous in defeat, he was “disappointed to be knocked out of the cup”, but praised his team “for their application, their defence was good. The weather conditions made the ball a bar of soap and to Quins credit, they held on to it better than we did”. Thanks guys – this was no steal but a well deserved victory.