January Player of the Month

Whilst five individuals have been highlighted this should not detract from the combined efforts and more important the consistency of the whole squad during January.

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Paul Burke topped two of the CAW Man of the Match Polls during January. With a staggering 76% of the vote, he was the clear winner for the away match at Montauban, and again two weeks later, by taking over half the vote, for the home match against Brive.

To take three quarters of the vote, was hardly surprising as fly-half Paul Burke single-handedly demolished a lack lustre Montauban side and secured Quins a comfortable away win. His outstanding performance was his first full game from a seven week lay off following a rib injury picked up in the match against Bath. Burke produced an outstanding display at Stade de Sapiac, where he played the lead role in all four of the first-half tries as he forged Quins to 29-3 at the break. Tiatia had opened the try-scoring after a Burke grubber-kick, whilst winger Monye, who bagged a brace of tries and Greenwood another, both took advantage of some of Burke’s more astute chips and cross-kicks to get the points on the board. Burke’s haul of six goals from seven attempts kept Harlequins in total control throughout the match they marched on to a 43- 8 victory.

Against Brive, Burke put in yet another very impressive display, popping up everywhere, despite the antics of an unsympathetic and error prone referee. Burke both called the shots and kicked them with a significant haul of 21 points as he landed four penalties and converted three of four tries.

Six minutes into the second half Harder struck again, bursting through weak tackling to score Straight from a Burke inside pass after a scrum on the Brive 22, Harder struck again with his second try of the afternoon. With Burke converting for a 21-3 lead, the French side were on the rack, and their plight worsened when Burke carved open the defence to float a long pass to Fuga for Quin’s third try, which he then converted, and so the Burke show continued with a penalty that took Quins on to a 31-3 lead before Brive crossed for their only try.

The day after the match we awoke to newspaper headlines worthy of Kev T! “Burke bolsters Quins’ Cushion” and “Burke puts Quins in Cruise Control”. The plaudits also followed on the Board. “For me, Burkey was man of the match. I thought he had a great game, all round. Good decisions, great tackles”. Kwin

“I thought the reception he got from the West Stand said it all. Marvellous performance. Credit to Burkey for his adventure and the way he bossed the game. He has reacted to the arrival of Andy Dunne in exactly the right way. I think some credit must also go to Simon Keogh who is giving Burkey the kind of service and the time to show us his skills..” Kev T

 “I am reliably informed that when Paul Burke scored his 16th (or 19th) point this afternoon he had reached the milestone of 1000 points for Quins. The Quins record is held by Bob Hiller with over 1500!” Alanquin

Kwin also quickly whipped up some ample helpings of humble for those “ Burkey Bashers”. “Great performance from PB - I hope there'll be some humble pie eaten on the message board. He's had an excellent season, marred only by the injury, great at the start, great now. Playing his best season ever for Quins perhaps?” Kwin.

Without naming and shaming; “1 large portion of said humble pie please!! I have been critical of Burke and to my mind correctly however this season he is adding more than boot to his game, the pressure of Dunne and service of Keogh must be a factor, the most important thing is & always will be that Quins are showing that we can and will play rugby WITH ANYBODY”

“I too must put my hand up and ask for my share of pie - the last few games have been top drawer from Burkey…”

“I've been critical of PB in the past but have to admit he was outstanding today..”

So after all ,We love you Burkey!

Gavin Duffy, put in an absolutely sublime afternoon’s work at home in the match against Montauban and earned himself the CAW Man of the Match. Throughout the match Duffy showed himself to be the very exciting player he is. His running with the ball in hand, was brilliant and a subtle kick, catch and run which set up Hayters’, try was magnificent. Duffy did very well that afternoon fielding poor clearances and running back with the ball. He even survived a particularly vicious clothes-line tackle from one of the French defenders, after he’ d picked his route to the try line. He also put in an exciting performance in the away match in Montauban

Duffy had yet another excellent game at home to Brive. He has grown considerably in stature as the season has progressed. Maybe having to fight for the fly half position with Taumalolo, has helped although he has had many more starts than Josh, who has suffered a number of set backs through injury.

Duffy is a steady player and he certainly knows when to kick and when to run, although some of the kicking could be better. His long kicks to find touch don t work out as often as they should, which causes too many “returns of service “. He plays his part in defence too, we’ve all witnessed some excellent tackling, in the matches against the French opposition. Under the high ball again he is very confident. “Hopefully he will now go on and build on this and establish himself at 15”. Nick TLQ. I believe we’ve not seen the best of him yet.

In a poll, that was run mid month, to decide who is the best full back in recent times, Duffy with 38% of the vote essentially tied with Nathan Williams on 39%, for the top spot. Taumalolo hardly figured at 5%, which must be due to his long term injury, although he has yet to shine. Duffy has put in some super performances this season, however he to should not be too complacent. He will now have to start looking over his should to see if Tom Williams, from the Academy and another CAW Poll winner has come into view.

Pressure for places, with fewer than normal injuries, seems to be part of the key to Quins success this season. A success that breeds success.

It was very encouraging to see Duffy picked along with Burke for training with Ireland’s initial 6 Nations Squad. Like their fellow Celtic Quin, Ceri Jones, neither of them were chosen in the final 22 for the match against France, but that doesn’t rule them out later on.

George Harder, was been missing through injury for the most of the early part of the season, but he beginning to make his mark since his return. He gave Quins a most auspicious start against Brive, and will probably finish the year with the honour of scoring the fastest try at the Stoop this season, just 43 seconds in to the match. A fact that was not lost on Chris Lyles of the Observer in his headline “To start well, try Harder”.

Unfortunately, many spectators missed this try as they were still finding their way to their seats, but all the action leading to the try is still very fresh in my mind. Watching from my vantage point, high in the East Stand, I’ve recalled the action a number of times in the past few weeks. Following Vos’s tap-back of Burke's hanging kick-off there was a powerful drive by Evans up the middle of the field. Once Quins were within striking distance the ball was recycled and swung out to the far right. Harder got his hands on it and looked outside, as the opposition followed his gaze the grateful Samoan slipped through, to touchdown and collect an easy five points. Simple enough but mighty effective, Brive were stunned. The earlier cheers, turned to groans close to half time when he spurned a glorious try scoring opportunity, with a two-man overlap, but he decided to go on his own and was stopped. It was harder not to score!

In the second half, Harder did atone for his earlier aberration. He finished off a well-worked move, from Burke’s inside pass following a scrum on the Brive 22, to put down under the posts. The manner in which the French defence opened up and let him through brought to mind the vision of the parting of the Red Sea. Harder had put in a number of crunching tackles during the afternoon and the French were beginning to surrender. He did contribute significantly to the match result by his tackling and running. He certainly is a great signing.

Although Harder didn’t top the CAW poll for this match, he was Mark Evans Man of the Match. I suspect the “missed golden opportunity” of that lost try was the cause his lower rating in the poll of 14% for that match, although he achieved an overall rating of 4.50 in the players profile.

Ceri Jones , clear winner of the CAW Player of the Month for December, continued his winning form by taking the Man the Match award for the match up at Kingston Park. His try, not only gave Harlequins their fourth away win of the season, but a crucial win too, that earned five precious points and took Quins up to joint forth position, level on points with the three other teams. Who says Harlequins don’t travel!

His pushover try, a full nine minutes into injury time, snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and left Harlequins winners by 25–29. This was after a very late Walder drop goal, which had initially stolen the result for the home side, yet Harlequins demonstrated a hunger, sheer determination and bloody-mindedness that had come from the results of the previous two premiership matches. It seemed the game was lost, but a line-out deep in the Falcons' half gave Quins possession, the scrum that followed became a rolling maul (a thing of beauty) and from that the forwards pushed Ceri Jones over for his sixth try in five matches. Adrian Jarvis in his debut in a Premiership Match followed up the conversion kick to the howls of disappointment and frustration from the Newcastle supporters.

Surprisingly that try put Jones ahead of Monye and level with Keogh on the number of tries scored at that point in the season!

Following the game the plaudits flew in thick and fast: Amberblack 2001 posted a number of times ”It wouldn't surprise me if my old mate Ceri Jones isn't "turning into a try scoring machine

… … full credit to Ceri Jones on his newly found fame with the Quins, He was always a highly under rated player at Newport to some, but to me and a few thousand others he was a fantastically strong, running forward who played a great part in Newport's Principality cup win.”

“… the pack always seem to have more control when he plays, and the opposition only ever try once to come tight around his side of a ruck before they encounter a brick wall.”

“I'm sure we'll be noticing him more and more now that the weather has turned and it's becoming more of a forwards' game. For me, it's a toss up between CJ and SK for signing of the season”. Witchwood

Following this success we were all please to see that Jones had been selected for training with the Welsh Squad, sadly though, he didn’t made the cut, it’s good news for Quins, but it must be very disappointing for him. Is this the price of not playing for a club in your home nation?, as a similar fate was to fall on Burke and Duffy

Tom Williams, is yet another player who has been performing well for Quins but who has not made an international squad is Tom Williams the young fullback who missed out in the final squad for England U21.s. Tom an Academy member and regular in the Second XV team was voted Man of the Match against the Natal Sharks. He received praise after this match “.. his try saving tackle was amazing. If you watch the slow motion, I swear the Sharks player starts grinning once he gets the ball under control and sees there's only one player to go round. Then the arm comes out and he's stopped dead.” Battering Ram Winger. This tackle prevented the Sharks stretching their lead to four unanswered tries.

 Whatever your views on the reasons fore and against the playing of this now annual match, this year it has continued to bring forward, and blood the members of the academy, and show their skills to a much wider audience, courtesy of Sky, than those in the stands at the Stoop. Tom Williams was the player to step up to the mark this year and I can do no more justice than to reproduce from Kwin’s excellent match report

“ In the programme notes Mark Evans had spelt out clearly the value he saw in the game - a chance for youngster to break through. This game last season saw breakthrough performances from Simon Miall and Andy Reay. Would any of the young players tonight seize the opportunity to shine in front of a packed house? Step forward Tom Williams, an assured a full back as you'll see on a Rugby pitch. Tom's penetrating, good angled attacks, sensible decisions and two try-saving tackles amounted to fine all-round performance that will have surprised no reader of Alanquin's regular reports from the Reserves”.

In summing up this has been an excellent start to 2004. Although they have not been nominated, special mention has to be made for the sheer determination of the front five. In addition praise is due as well for a “well greased” Matt Moore, who has slipped through defences to be on the score sheet several times this month and to Simon Keogh, as scrum half for his excellent distribution to Paul Burke.

What a wealth of talent we currently have at Harlequins,

Nominations, in alphabetical order for CAW Player of the Month for January 2004 are.

Paul Burke

Gavin Duffy

George Harder

Ceri Jones

Tom Williams

A very hard choice again this month, but my vote has to go to Paul Burke, he is playing with such confidence and renewed assurance and is playing very well, especially with Simon Keogh alongside him!