Harlequins Finish the League with a Win

After a long break from competitive rugby, Quins were eager to get going again, and with a break in the weather that came in the guise of the rearranged league fixture against Hanwell.

The day didn't start well with our original squad of 21 being whittled down to 16 due to injuries, sickness and other emergencies, and with two of our props going to be late, the starting line up was looking interesting with George Jacques playing at 8. Luckily Gareth showed up in time and we managed to get a semi normal team line up.

The game started well for Harlequins with Alec Smail running a lovely swerve line to beat two players and touch down next to the posts with George adding the extras it was a perfect start 7-0.

Soon after George had the chance to add three more as Quins were awarded a penalty within striking distance, which he obliged to do, 10-0.

After this start Hanwell started to fight back with a very limited but effective game plan, using the wind and a the big boot of their fly half, Hanwell started to play tight territorial rugby, with a very good rolling maul were making inroads. Especially as Quins kept getting penalised at the break down Hanwell were able to pin us right back in our own 22.

Then after some dogged defence the inevitable happened, with Hanwell scoring from a rolling maul, with the conversion missed, the score was 10-7.

Harlequins just couldn't stop being penalised though and sure enough Hanwell using the same tactic had a line out and again mauled it over the line to take the lead, with the added conversion, 10-12.

Harlequins just couldn't get it right, doing some lovely thing with ball in hand the trying to offload unsuccessfully became a running theme, and with Hanwell gaining a penalty deep in Quins territory, a former Quin Kenny Hassan managed to find a gap in the defence to score, the conversion missed, the score at half time 17-10.

With a bit of tinkering, Alec moving to 10 and Simon Rowland moving to 12. First 10 minutes of the second half were fantastic, the intensity from the forwards was generating quick ball which allowed Quins to make a lot of ground, Alec Smail seeing a gap inside, stepped and ran in from 40m to score his second of the match, George completed the extras to tie the game at 17-17
As always my memory has faltered and I can't remember the exact order of the things but I will try.

George managed to keep his impressive try to game ratio up as he opted not to go for the simple overlap but power his was over the line, he added the extras to his score and lifted Quins back into the lead, 24-17.

Paul complaining of a sore ankle (it now turns out he has ruptured a ligament, so we all hope he gets better soon) stole the ball from the back of the opposition scrum, and beating the last defender with what can only be called an outrageous side step, scored in the corner, George missed the kick, 29-17.

Quins seemed to take the foot of the accelerator then and allowed Hanwell to play their tight forward game. After taking a tap penalty Mitchell Collins was sin binned for tackling the ball carrier when not being 10m, a crime we all thought was particularly harsh as Quins had two easy penalty chances stopped by Hanwell not being 10m which the referee did nothing.

Down to 14 Hanwell made the most of the man advantage and piled players into rucks and mauls to gain ground. Finally sending a man over the line, and under the posts, 29-24.

Soon after Simon Wood and Hanwell's 10 got into a bit of handbags, the referee sin binning both players, but with only 7 minutes left, that was the end of the game for those players.

The game finished as it started with Alex Smail cutting a great line and beating several defenders to run the ball into the corner to take the game beyond a score.

The final whistle went with the score 34-24.

The league has finished now with Harlequins finishing 3rd, this gives us home advantage in the play offs.

As Dave Love said before the match, all competitive matches from here on out are knock out, we are in the semi final of Merit Table Cup, the play offs of the Merit Table itself and in the Middlesex Vase.

The fact is if we train together and play our best rugby, we have every chance of walking away with three pieces of silverware this season.