Harlequin Struggle Against League Leaders

On Saturday 25th November, Harlequin Amateurs made the journey to Harrow to play an Old Millhillians side that had had some notable results so far this season. However, with each of the top four sides having lost a game or two, Quins were hoping to take something away from the game and continue their own good form in the league.

In front of a large, vocal home crowd the game got under way in near perfect conditions for running rugby. Old Millhillians came firing out of the blocks and found themselves a few scores up within the first 20 minutes, with their ten running the game well and releasing their impressive backs when the time was right. With the scoreboard ticking over in OM’s favour, it would have been easy for Quins to roll over. The Quins of last season may well have done so. But we continued to fight and were rewarded with an uncoverted try after numerous solid pick and drives from the pack allowed the ball to be shipped to Alec Smail who ran in for the score.

I’m not sure on the exact score, but it was something like 25-5 at HT.

The second half got under way and began as a much more even affair. Quins managed to get off the line well in defence and shut out the opportunities for their backs, big hits coming in particularly by Louis Hill, Joe Watkins and James Addis. However, on the 55 minute mark, the second half deadlock was broken by another well worked OM try. Although Quins worked tirelessly to make the impressive OM side earn every point they scored, a couple more scores took the home side to 45-5.

Heading into the last 5 minutes, Quins started to press for another score of their own, and after more hard yards by Chris Addis and Remy, making his first team debut for the club, a solid platform was set. Rather than opting to go wide, scrum half Hugh Pritchard spotted a gap behind the breakdown and dinked a Danny Care-esque kick over the top for the charging Alec Smail to collect and score his second of the game. With the conversion missed, the game ended at 45-10 to OM. A side that will undoubtedly be pushing for promotion come the end of the season.

Although not the result we would like, a fantastic performance from all the guys that stepped up to stake a selection claim in place of those on our seemingly never ending injury list.

MoM went to Remy, who came off the bench for the injured Harry Stark, and put in a great shift, which is nothing less than a reflection from the work put in at training.

DoD went to Paul Hibbert. Our very own Andy Goode playing ten who made a beautiful line break followed by a cute looking off load...but straight into the hands of an OM player. To be fair to Paul, DoD seemed to be the award everyone wanted, with at least three cars of players deciding they would prefer to play at other sports grounds.

Next up, Harlequins face Mill Hill at Broom Road on Saturday 9th December. Mill Hill have been a stand out team this season, and Quins will need to be on top form to stop their juggernaut pack. 14.00 KO.