Vets kick off their season with a win against Paulines

Harlequin Vets kicked off their season (*) with a comprehensive victory against Old Paulines last Saturday.

We were fortunate to welcome a big squad last saturday (lets hope this can continue) and with an excellent pitch and calm weather the stage was set for a good game against a team, which over the last five years has gone to exactly the same script - mainly that quinns pull away in the first half with pauline clawing back in the second half!

And this game was no different. We kicked off and immediately the forwards barrelled into Old Paulines with Big Jim, Emmanuel and Karl leading the surge and made significant gains against their opposite pack. We had strong dominance in the scrum (but evened things up for them a little in the line out!). This gave us a good platform for the backs to make good inroads with Loisoz orchestrating our moves and Sean punching some excellent holes whilst seemingly playing as hooker on occasion! It wasn't long before the opposition resistance crumbled and Gavin crashed over for the opening try (**).

The oppo kicked off again and normal service resumed. We were fortunate enough to have two debutants and Jack (just about a minor) caught the ball and rampaged down the sidelines making good ground. After some further interplay between the backs and forwards with Wally slicing through the centres like a knife through a salami, we were camped on their 5 metre line enabling Paul Lister (playing scrum half and acting as an extra forward) to dart over and score our second try.

We finished the first half with a controversial (albeit totally legal try). Matt Ferraby and Jason made good ground off some open play and when recycled to the backs, your match day reporter punched through the centres before attempting an offload, which bounced on the floor, then the oppositions hand (backwards) before being ably picked up by Gustav (who on an age adjusted basis must have been man of the match on saturday) who skinned his winger and opened his account for Quinns in the corner.

The second half kicked off and immediate Paulines (knowing of course the usual script) began playing better (or we tailed off) and only some excellent tackling by Paul Baker and PA in the backs prevented a large number of tries being scored. PA had a great game but unfortunately was unable to convert a number of gilt edged opportunities. We had also made some changes at half time and welcomed back Brando for his debut this season who was solid on the wing for us as well as Matt P and Rob (second first time debutant) in the centres. Rob quickly scored his first try of the season after their flyhallf attempted to run through Gavin - irresistible force met very movable object! - their fly half crumpled, we recycled, kicked through and Rob scored an excellent try to steady the ship.

The last five minutes had a slight feel of us hanging on, more to do with fitness than anything else - note to all - fitness ahead of Esher who beat Farnham recently would be good! Next game Esher on a week Friday - lets get a large squad to make us well positioned for the game.

(*) second half of the season
(**) with apologies if the order of try scorers is incorrect!