One For The Purists

With the rain falling and the wind driving Quins turned up at home cursing the early friendly kick off.

The match was typical of the conditions, a forward dominated match with a lot of mistakes.

Quins were dominant in the scrum winning many against the head but in the first half the line out was creaking, so possession kept changing hands. After some sustained pressure in Quins' half Kilburn burst through the defensive line with a strong run and a couple of good offloads. Kilburn went in under the posts, but failed to convert the try and so led 0-5.

This seemed to galvanise Quins who managed to play with some significant possession and gaining territory into Kilburn's half. The pressure told with Ed Barrett driving himself over the line, the referee was not in a good place to see the grounding and didn't have the benefit of a TMO. Quins lacking the cutting edge that had plagued them through the season couldn't find a way to cross the whitewash and so finished the half trailing 0-5.

The second half started much like the first half finished with Quins forwards putting in the half graft to put Quins in Kilburn's 22 for long stretches of the half. But at crucial periods Kilburn got a turnover and managed to clear their lines.

Nearing the end of the match and still trailing Quins' had a number of dominant scrums on Kilburn's 5m line. Andy Crew was adjudged to knocking on before scoring twice from the back of the scrum, and then Jake Walker penalised for a double movement. It was sensed a try was coming but time was running low. After battering the line for a few minuted more James Corbishley spotted a flying defensive line and snuck in behind in typical Scrum Half fashion to score and tie the match.

Simon Rowland slotted the conversion to take the lead 7-5 with 90s to go. Quins switched off and ambled back to the half way line. Kilburn spotted this and kicked off quickly, fortunately the kick went into touch. Quins' lineout, all they needed to do was secure the ball and use up the clock. But the creaking lineout was back and Kilburn won the lineout. Into the last seconds of the match David Love ripped the ball and presented the ball to the back of the ruck, where Quin's kicked into touch to record a hard fought victory.