|
(Click to enlarge)
Our
second pre-season friendly match was away to our old friends Hereford RFC.
It
turned out to be probably the hottest day of the summer with bright
sunshine and the temperature at 6pm was still 25 degrees!
Despite this Aled Hill and Rhodri Howells played all 90 minutes
(40, 30 then 20) without any respite or substitution.
This is very impressive for 2 youngsters and shows just how much
hard work they have put into pre-season training.
The
first 40 minutes looked very ominous with the Hereford pack showing us how
to hit the rucks. They were
very dynamic with good body angles and simply drove us off the ball.
When they scored under the posts with less than 5 minutes on the
clock it looked very ominous. A
second and third unconverted try followed and things were looking bleak
before Khal got our first points on the board with a straight forward
penalty. Just as it looked as
if we would turn around 17-3 adrift Dafydd (Dino) Franklin showed great
alertness to intercept a Hereford attempted quick throw in and sprinted
some 60 metres for a try under the posts converted by Khal.
The
second period was a complete reversal of the first.
We started to implement our training strategies of putting width
and pace on the ball and suddenly the spaces began to appear.
The Hereford pack which had look so effective at the breakdown in
the first period now found it much more difficult to get to the rucks let
alone dominate and we started to put some phases together.
Joe Touma showed great strength and energetic support work to score
our first try in this period converted again by Khal.
A second blistering try by Dino soon followed which Khal again
converted.
The
home supporters were by now a lot quieter as the Quins showed great pace
once more this time for Rhys (Rusty) Jones to score and convert his own
try.
Before
the end of the second period Dino crossed for his hat trick which was once
more converted by Khal giving us a 38 - 22 lead.
By
the start of the final period we had played 70 minutes of high tempo rugby
in the hot sun and had picked up quite a few knocks.
Adam Vosper suffered a nasty ankle injury and Dafydd Judd hurt his
back so we played the final period with several players well out of
position - Mike Press on the wing being the most obvious!
The home side had many more players to draw on and fielded several
pairs of fresh legs. The
referee who had given us some cause for concern over his interpretation at
the break down yellow carded one from each side during the final 20
minutes making everyone work just that little bit harder.
Hereford
ran in 2 more tries in the final stages but crucially only managed to
convert one. As a result when
the referee blew for full time we had managed to hold on for a very well
deserved 38-36 victory. The closeness of the score illustrates just how
vital it is to get close to the posts to kick your own conversions and
conversely how important it is to keep opposition scores out wide.
It
was a very entertaining if not exhausting game in which the Quins players
showed great character and fitness. It
also demonstrated that our tactics of tempo and width can overcome teams
that are physically stronger up front so we can look forward to the
forthcoming League program with plenty of confidence.
Well
done all the players and both coaches.
|
