On Saturday afternoon, Quins made one of their longest away trips of the season to play a team in blue. The expectations were that the opponents would be far too strong but recent results had given Quins a glimmer of hope that they might just be able to stage an upset.

In truth though the game was rarely a contest and Quins ended the day on the wrong end of a 60-point loss dished up by a superior team.

Whilst that could be a brief synopsis of the Pros’ trip across the Irish Sea to face the might of Leinster, it would be equally true of the Ams' journey down the A3 to league leaders Haslemere.

Having lost heavily to ‘Mere in round one of the season, Quins knew that they were in for a battle in the April sunshine. Perhaps Haslemere don’t have the majority of the Ireland team fortified by a World Cup winner and an All Black but they have been head and shoulders above most teams in Counties 4 this season as their record of 16 wins from 18 games shows.

They have a level of cohesion that Quins' thrown-together squad struggled to match whilst the hard track and hot, dry conditions played into ‘Mere’s desire to play a fast, running brand of rugby.

But what can Quins take from this fixture?

Well, the scrum held up very well against a pack of big lads. Dare I say it, we may even have had the upper hand.

And once the team was able to gel a little, we gave 'Mere a bloody good game before their fitness and bench told. The third quarter was a very close affair with Quins scoring two good tries (one a fantastic 80-yarder from new boy V. Welcome to the club, mate). We showed that with more cohesion and a little more application, we can mix it with the big boys.

But with that chastening defeat, the curtain comes down on the 2024/25 league season.

There’s a certain circularity that we end in the same way we started but in between we played some fantastic rugby. And we finish 5th in a league of 10 with a record of P18 W10 L8. Well done to Povey for all his efforts.

Congrats to Haslemere on winning the league and on to the Papa Johns Cup.