I’ve mentioned before in these match reports that there are definite themes appearing in Surrey 4 this season; both for Quins and the league as a whole.

Throughout the season, there has been a distinct top 3 (Haslemere, Old Glyn and Southwark) and a report of Saturday’s game could in truth have been a rehash of the write up of our away game at Old Glyn.

In both cases, we travelled to one of those top 3 clubs with a somewhat cobbled together squad resulting in players out of position or staying on despite injury. In both cases it could never be said that Quins gave up.

Even the 52-7 scoreline was exactly the same as away ay Glyn.

What was different in this game was that you could start to see a corner being turned. As Quins players got to know each other better, the game became much more even.

Southwark are a well-drilled team, very used to their plastic pitch. It was perhaps no surprise therefore that they were able to run in several tries in the first half.

Slowly but surely however, Quins were able to get a foothold in the game and make it much more of a contest. Players adapted to roles that the don’t usually do, tactics were tweaked to fit the personnel we had and the cavalry arrived in the form of a trio of subs.

The second half was therefore a much more balanced affair and showed that we can mix with the league’s leading pack when we play to our potential.

That can only be cause for optimism as we enjoy a Six Nations break before welcoming Old Glyn to the Reeves on March 1st. It’s likely to be another tough one against another of the Top 3 but if we play like we finished the Southwark game, we are more than capable of holding our own.

A final word for Max. Selected as MoM by Southwark, he deserves extra praise for taking the captain’s armband with the lowest level of touchline support we’ve had …. since the last time he Captained in the Old Glyn game.