Prof’s Positives Week 23: Falcons and Sharks

By The Prof
February 6 2003

So it all started with the trip to Newcastle and British Airways ruining our travel plans by cancelling flights. Some of the intrepid Quins supporters managed to get later flights, some were transferred and some got up well before dawn to drive or get a lift to the far north.

Sadly the teamwork and spirit that was to the fore in the supporters seemed to be lacking in the team in the second half of the match. Positives to come from the match were few and far between. Codling continued to perform well in the line outs but in the cold north-east it was the south sea islanders who came to the fore – Ace had his usually robust game and didn’t let his head drop, Big Bill followed up his good performance against Leicester with another fine performance making a number of big hits and one particularly fine show of the ball to dummy his opposite number. Greenwood controlled the backs well in the first half but when he didn’t come out in the second it all went to pieces.

It was one of the most depressing away trips many of us had been on and the usually irrepressible Diamond Geezers were surprisingly quiet in the brand new cavernous but characterless Newcastle bar after the game. There were so few positives to come from the trip, I thought my magenta coloured glasses had worn out - so let’s look elsewhere.

Tuesday night saw the Natal Sharks visiting The Stoop for their annual pre-season warm up. Last year the weather was terrible and there was a smokescreen across the pitch thanks to the barbeque that had been set up in the south-west corner of the ground, but this year the weather was dry but a little chilly..

The Quins’ team was nothing like the team we had seen the previous Saturday - there were probably only two first team first choice players starting (if we could choose from the full squad) – Andre Vos and Nathan Williams. Although Fuga, Dawson and Bemand are all likely to start on Saturday due to continuing injuries to Wood, Gomez and Duncombe. The lack of first team players available was because of 11 injuries (including recent injuries to Bell and Satala) and six players were on international duty – Leonard, Greenwood and Luger with England, Burke with Ireland and Gollings and Monye with England 7s.

So with a very strong Sharks team showing up it looked like our team of youngsters might be on the end of a thumping. Players making their first first team start at The Stoop included the 19 year old centres Reay and Barrett, Miall in the second row and Slemen was having his first start after a long time out due to a foot injury.

So it was more like watching a mixture of the firsts, seconds and U21s take on a Super 12 side – we fans weren’t expecting much. The omens weren’t good before the kick off when Andre Vos’ captaincy skills were called into doubt when he could only arrange to have his photo taken with two of the three diminutive mascots that ran out with him.


The scrum again performed incredibly well against a fearsome looking visiting pack. Starr was causing his opposite number a huge amount of trouble in early scrums with the hooker barely being able to bind onto his tighthead. Tani had a good game and put in some huge tackles and the little chip over the top that lead to Sherriff’s try was a joy to behold. Dawson had a much better game in the tight than he did at Newcastle and the break he made that lead to Nathan William’s second try was a great thing to see too, especially the ease with which he handed off Butch James. I am sure when he relates the story it will be that he picked the ball up from behind his own line and ran the length of the pitch throwing dummy and producing sidestep after sidestep and was only just stopped short of the try line – who cares, it was a great moment.

The second row also performed well both in the tight and in the loose, Rudzki and Sky’s man of the match Miall were making tackles all over the pitch and had good days in the line out stealing a few opposition throws and for the most part taking their own cleanly. Rudzki did some great work around the tackle area and Miall was not only the top tackler but did a couple of nice pirouetting tackle breaks – perhaps Jase is grooming him to take over as an out and out winger!

With such a good performance from the front five the back row had a solid base to do their work – Vos looked very comfortable in his favoured position of No6 and Sherriff looked the part as an out and out number seven and Jim Evans looked the part at eight, and as always he showed his strength and speed with the ball in hand. Vos made a lot of gain line breaking runs on the crash ball and Sherriff’s work on the ground snaffling up balls was something we have missed since David Wilson left us.

Bemand and Slemen worked well together considering it was they first time they had played together for a long time. The centres were probably a revelation to anyone who hadn’t seen them play for the seconds – Reay and Barratt both game everything, they went looking for space at every opportunity and they both put in a number of thumping tackles. Since they are both only 19 and they were up against a very experienced international back line they did a storming job.

Jeweller’s top moments were when he went close to scoring in the second half trying to find a gap through the middle but the sharpness he showed when he took the quick line out to Williams where he ran half the length of the pitch to score was very nice to see.

Williams had a great game at fullback taking the ball up the pitch at pace again and again, his soft hands when he came into midfield had a touch of the Greenwood to them and the fact he scored two tries must be a positive too – but where is the celebratory somersault he promised us? Williams’ kicking was good too, he converted his first two – one from wide out on the left and only narrowly missed the third.

Of the numerous substitutions Hayter did well around the park and put in a number of good tackles. Powell performed well at scrum half and Horstmann and Mockford did all that was asked of them.

All in all it was a great game to watch, the youngsters got really stuck in to their opposition and showed a spirit and commitment that was great to see. The pack outscrummaged the visitors for large parts of the game – something that is rare to do against South African opposition and they were all very aggressive around the tackle area.

The performance was certainly very pleasing and it put a smile on the faces of a lot of the people who had travelled up to Newcastle just a few days before. I hope this will make more people turn up to the second team games that are left. It also brought money into the club and since the Sharks v Stormers game is a sell out it is all useful revenue for the club.

Elsewhere in the club the U21s game was cancelled as was the ladies game and two of the amateurs’ games although the Wanderers had a disappointing loss against London Scottish.

Although our injury list is still increasing Roy Winters should be returning to action in two or three weeks time – something I am sure we all wish him well with.

Finally, Leah Carey of the Ladies team has been selected as pack leader for the England Women’s U19 team to play Wales at Caerphilly on March 23rd – heartiest congratulations to her.