Bogey team strikes again

After starting 2016 off with a win against Mill Hill Harlequin Amateurs travelled to their local rivals and bogey team Old Isleworthians, with a few injuries and late cry offs the team was not as strong as it may have been, however we were still confident of finally recording a win against Old Is.
The game being played on Old Is second pitch was quite slow to start with due to the sloping pitch and soggy energy sapping ground, neither team looked sharp for the first 10 minutes. The opening score was a try to Old Is number 8 who after Quins tapped down an awkward lineout in their own 22 fly hacked the ball past Paul Hibbert and Chris Addis to touch down in the corner, the kicker missed the conversion, 5-0.
If the first score was lucky the second was downright sloppy, George Jaques kicked a nice hanging restart that the Quins forwards put a lot of pressure on, Old Is tapped back to their big second row who managed to waltz through pretty much every player to run unimpeded to score under the posts. This was particularly galling as Quins tackling as markedly improved over the last couple of weeks. The easy conversion was slotted Quins were down 12-0 in a matter of minutes.
Having conceded two soft tries in quick succession one would have thought that this was sharpen the minds a bit and get the game back on track, but this would have to wait as a couple of minutes later Old Is converted and overlap to see their outside centre cross the white wash, the conversion again was missed, 17-0. The game seemed to be running away for Quins and looked like it could be a cricket score.
Finally Quins woke up after a period of madness, and started going back to strengths, with Joe Watkins and Aaron Addis making strong runs into traffic, followed by some smart pick and go’s from the pack that led to an overlap. George Jaques having the option for an easy two on one to Joe Watkins instead used that famous handoff and crossed the line himself. Despite the great try, George hit one of the worse kicks I’ve ever seen him do so the score was now 17-5.
Quins seemed to be gaining the ascendency now and retaining the possession well, when Jake Walker collected a kick before beating a couple of defenders and executing a textbook draw and pass to James Addis who with a combination of good footwork, pace and strength made 20m in a fabulous run before being hauled 5m short of the try line. Some lovely quick ball gave Aaron enough space to finish off what his brother started. George’s kicking now back in the groove sweetly slotted the conversion, 17-12.
Worryingly for Quins the set piece that was so dominant last week was under a lot of pressure, especially in the scrum where we were often being shoved off our own ball, or the wily old hooker was stealing the hook from Luke Nugent. The lineout was functioning well but with the loss of Mitch Collins in the warm up, we were not stealing as much ball as last week.
After some sustained possession Quins were awarded a penalty, with not long to go in the half, and having the second best maul on the pitch George pointed to the posts and duly kicked the points to reduce the deficit to 2, 17-15. The score remained this for a couple more minutes before the referee blew for half time.
The vibe in the huddle was positive, apart from 5 minutes of madness Quins had played the best rugby with some great tackling from all three Addis brothers and some lovely attacking from George and Joe. The pack was bossing the rucks and is looked like with Quins playing this way they may finally get a win.
It didn’t take long before Quins were back putting pressure on Old Is, a kick to touch from George led to Quins being awarded a penalty 5m out in front of the posts, Sean Gorman quickly spotted that none of Old Is were retreating behind the line and took a quick tap and go before illegally being brought down by an opposing player only a meter in front. There was a very good shout for a penalty try as no defending player was onside, and if left unimpeded Sean would certainly have crossed the line. The penalty try wasn’t awarded but the player that illegally tackled Sean was sent to the bin.
George pointed to the posts again and put Quins into the lead for the first time in the match, 17-18. Not to call her the harbinger of doom, but this is when Mrs Nugent arrived, also in a bad mood for not being able to find the pitch that was down a very small alley. Quins had worked very hard to work themselves back from 17-0 down to now be leading, which meant the following capitulation was a bitter pill to swallow.
Old Is shocked by this comeback were spurred into action, using their big forward runners to punch holes, and their 10 taking the ball to line and creating space started to stretch Quins’ defence. Again the Addis brother were tackling all that they saw, but eventually the defence was stretched too far and the left wing scored for Old Is to take back the lead, the conversion was no good, 22-18.
Old Is now had the belief and really started to play some very good running rugby. Quins defence started to buckle, with some missed tackles, or not drifting. Old Is were ruthless scoring two tries in 7 minutes, converting both of them the score was now 36-18 with 14 minutes to go, it looked like Quins were going to be frustrated at Old Is once again. A series of penalties however saw Quins make some real territory, before surrendering it and allowing the opposition scrum half cross the line with 2 minutes to go, the conversion was no good, 41-18.
But the never say die attitude for Quins was abundantly clear as they got the last score, as Joe Watkins crossed the line to keep his scoring average up, George kicked the conversion with the last kick of the game, the final whistle went with Quins losing 41-25.
A frustrating game, with a total period of 10 minutes where Quins seemed to switch off that, ultimately costing the game.
A couple of mentions that I didn’t manage to get into the match report, Dave Love after his turnover master class last week was making a lot of big carries, his transformation to blindside flanker is still ongoing.
Will Flaherty was everywhere on the pitch, in defence tackling everyone within a 10m radius, stealing ball and boshing people out the way with ball in hand. My favourite/least favourite moment was Mike Watson, a brilliant steal on the floor was succeeded by a skewed kick whilst falling over, an ever needed reminder that forwards shouldn’t kick.
Training on Wednesday at St Marys before a home game against Chess Valley, it is absolutely vital that we get good numbers of forwards and backs so we can go through what we need to, I will see you there.