Take a 10-minute stroll north from Place de la Concorde and you’ll find the charming Rue Godot de Mauroy. Nestled amongst the gentleman’s outfitters and Japanese restaurants is a fairly non-descript building. However, there are clues as to what might occur behind the black-painted walls.

The Guinness sign. The logo of three men’s heads; two with taped ears, the other wearing a scrum cap. The motto “Flexion…Touchez…Jeu!”

This bar is the “clubhouse” of an organisation that champions rugby’s big men. The brand’s very name is synonymous with forward dominance: NSNW – No Scrum, No Win.

Saturday’s game would have had the esteemed patrons choking on their pintes de pression.

But first some background.

Quins and Cranleigh are typically two very evenly-matched teams. Prior to Saturday’s game, there was only a couple of league points between us with both clubs having lost seven games.

Last season, we played three matches (two league, one cup) and on each occasion the home team won by three points or fewer. The aggregate score difference over the three games was just six.

Quins had been unable to field a team for our away fixture in December so this game was moved to Cranleigh and it’s fair to say that we were keen to restore some balance.

But look at the size of them! Cranleigh had a huge pack with Quins seeming to give away a stone or two in every forward position. This wasn’t helped that some of the players who usually add bulk weren’t available.

For those of us wearing single-digit shirt numbers, it looked like it would be a tough day at the office.

That said, we had a game plan that we thought would counter Cranleigh’s style of play and a back line that we knew had been doing damage in recent games.

Could pace and fitness outplay size and strength?

Cranleigh’s scrum was clearly on top whether in attack or defence but two quick Quins tries settled the nerves. Cranleigh then got on the board through a trademark rolling maul (7-12) but time and again our defence kept Cranleigh at bay before a breakout would lead to a Quins try. By half time it was 14-33 and Quins looked comfortable.

The second half felt a lot closer but a real clash of styles. Cranleigh used their weaponry up front to bludgeon Quins time and again. The home team’s scrum was making mincemeat of us and their maul was eating up the pitch. But then they’d get their backs involved and Quins’ aggressive defence would force a turnover.

The result was that Cranleigh’s four tries were all from scrums or rolling mauls whereas Quins scored seven from a mix of going wide early, charge downs, kick chases and midfield breaks.

As the dust settled on the game, Quins could look back with immense pride. It would have been easy to have fallen into the trap of playing Cranleigh’s game and that was a game we’d never win. Instead we pitted our strengths against theirs and built on the success we’ve recently enjoyed.

And so we’re on to our last league game of the 2024/25 season. We finish as we started with a match against Haslemere. The opening fixture was a 50-point humbling by a team who barely looked back from then and have led the league ever since.

And yet…. Quins are unrecognisable from the team who ran out at The Reeves in September. And whisper it quietly but Haslemere have been slipping of late.

Dare we dream???

Debut: Albert
MoM (chosen by Cranleigh): Mata for popping his dislocated shoulder back in and carrying on
DoD: Nobody deserved it this week

*FWIW, because we forfeited the earlier game against Cranleigh, officially that’s a 25-0 loss. Winning this game by 21 means that the aggregate points different for this season between the two clubs is four. The streak continues.