1st XV
Matches
Sat 16 Sep 2017  ·  Herts Middlesex 2
West London
Tries: (2)Conversions: (2)Penalties:
17
12
Harlequin Amateurs Rugby Club
1st XV
Tries: S Gorman, B MorrisConversions: J Bluett
Harlequins gain abother bonus point but go down against West London

Harlequins gain abother bonus point but go down against West London

Simon Rowland19 Sep 2017 - 08:30
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A tough physical contest ended with Harlequins failing to pick up their first league win of the season, but a better second half saw them come away with another bonus point

Harlequin Amateurs made the journey to West London on Saturday looking to make amends for the season opening loss at Cuffley last week.

Having come so close in the final 20’ last week, Quins were looking to carry that momentum into their second league fixture of the season against West London RFC, a team Quins haven’t beaten in a couple of meetings. However, with a total of 33 senior players unavailable through weddings, injury and holidays, Quins knew they had a mountain to climb.

As is becoming an unwanted habit with the Quins squad, a slow start to the game meant that we found ourselves 14 points down within the first 20 mins after conceding two early tries. A lead could have been extended further, had West London’s kicker converted some of the soft penalties given away.

14-0 at half time.

At this point, Quins seemed to finally turn up to the game and began to put a foothold onto the game. Things slowly built in Quins’ favour, after big hits all over the park from Si Rowland and Alex Horsfall continually drove West London back in defence. Our front row of Harry Stark, Cameron Gray and James Welsh continued to dominate, disrupting at every scrum keeping West London from having any clean ball to use, and driving us over the gain line at our put in. In fact it was exactly that dominance up front that lead to Quins’ first try, after Quins drove West London backwards over their try line for Sean Gorman to score a fine pack effort. 14-7.

As Quins grew into the game with every minute, try number two was scored after a moment of brilliance from outside centre Alec Smail, who stepped three defenders, chipped over the top and managed to knock the ball back into the hands of Ben Morris to score. Not to take away from the quality of finish from Ben, who still had the fullback to beat and a 40 metre run in. The missed conversion left the scores at 14-12.

With 15 minutes left to play, Quins felt a win could be on the cards and started to throw everything at West London. However, slightly against the run of play, West London managed to kick a penalty to extend their lead to five points. A five point game, with 10 minutes to play.

As time began to run out, Quins could not find that all important score, despite Si Hubbard going close with a slippery run down the wing, and West London hung on for the win. Final score 17-12.

This was a game that, again, we feel we could of won on another day, but another bonus point taken from a second away game on the bounce puts us in 8th place in the table, but only three points off third place, despite two losses.

And another week where our strength in depth has been proven, with Bernardo, James Bluett, Hugh, Nico and Ben all making league debuts for the club. Welcome to the club lads!

MOM went to Alec for his action man defence and moment of magic.

DOD has to go to Cam, who arrived 45 minutes late after putting the wrong address into the Satnav.

We all wish Tom Webb a speedy recovery after requiring stitches to his ear after a nasty clash of heads.

Onwards to next week when we host Hillingdon Abbotts in our first home game of the season. All welcome on the sidelines to cheer the boys on to, what we hope will be, our first win!

Match details

Match date

Sat 16 Sep 2017

Kickoff

TBC

Competition

Herts Middlesex 2

League position

5
Harlequin Amateurs
10
West London
Team overview
Further reading

Team Sponsors

Sponsor - MYCO
Club Sponsor - Savills
Club Sponsor - Norman Rourke Pryme LLP