So it’s my birthday this weekend (thank you) and this year my long suffering other half gave me a choice of presents – tickets for Fulham v Swansea at Craven Cottage, or Harlequins v London Irish at Twickenham. Now I normally love going to the football – I used to have a season ticket at Fulham, and the White Horse pub in Parsons Green is worth a trip to West London in itself. But this year I decided to throw ourselves at the mercy of South West trains (and their ability to read a fixture list), and the somewhat patchy allocation of ladies’ toilets at Twickenham, and check out the ‘Big Game’.
I will be honest and admit that the main reason I opted for the rugby over the football was to check out some of Quins’ England contingent in the flesh, namely (deep breath): Chris Robshaw, Joe Marler, Ugo Monye, Danny Care, Jordan Turner-Hall and Mike Brown. (Plus perhaps one or two for the future – fly-half Ben Botica might have been born in Takapuna but he’s been widely tipped to join the likes of Brad Barritt, Dylan Hartley, and Manu Tuilagi in the ‘plastic English’ corner of the dressing room in TW2.) Quins are the reigning Premiership champions so perhaps it’s no surprise that their best players are no strangers to HQ.
Then there’s London Irish, who aren’t having a great season, and who haven’t been quite the same since losing attack coach Mike Catt to the RFU. They’ve also lost some pretty good players since I last schlepped out to Reading to see them play (the Aviva Premiership names some of its teams in the same spirit of geographical accuracy as Ryanair advertises its ‘destination airports’). Former captain ‘Big’ Bob Casey has retired. Nick Kennedy and the Armitage brothers now earn big bucks playing for Toulon, Shontayne Hape for Montpelier. Current England interest is in the likes of centre Jonathan Joseph, wing Topsy Ojo, and prop Alex Corbisiero (part of the front row that asked the All Blacks some serious questions in December).
Unfortunately, despite the potentially high quality of the teams, both struggled to rise to the occasion in the awful conditions. The game never really matched the pyrotechnics that greeted Quins as they ran out on the field in front of a sell-out 82,000 crowd. It was pretty cold, but worse than that was the rain, a sort of swirly mist that managed to rain upwards into the stands where we sat. It was never really a stage for champagne rugby of any sort, and the wet and slippery ball let to a multitude of handling errors from both teams. Both sides traded penalties to end the first half at 6-6.
Twickers through the rain.
Some of these errors notably came from Nick Evans, probably because I jinxed him shortly before kick off by proclaiming him the best fly half in the Premiership. Fumbles and missed kicks apart, however, I would stand by that, and he also did much that was good, including one beautiful reverse pass that showed a tantalising glimpse of what this team can offer on a good day.
Conditions such as these often favour the big boys on the field, and, a well taken try from Danny Care apart, today was no exception. What was exceptional was the extent of the dominance exerted by the Quins scrum. Loosehead prop Joe Marler may have lost his England place of late but he has to be one of the most consistent performers in the Premiership. Quins got a good half of their penalties from the scrum, and then in the dying minutes scored a well earned penalty try, denying the Exiles a bonus point as they again demolished the set piece.
The result leaves London Irish in pretty poor shape – and sees their third consecutive Premiership game without scoring a try. Second from bottom of the league table, they are a mere point ahead of fellow strugglers Sale, and eight behind London Welsh. They put on a spirited display, and their determination and hustle may prove more profitable against mid-table teams – but they still seem worryingly poor at the fundamental skill of putting points on the board.
As for Quins, the win means they finish 2012 at the top of the Premiership table, the same position they were in last year. It’s often said that a sign of a good team is being able to grind out results like these – and based on the character of this display I would think that Quins are again strongly in the running for the Premiership title. They’ve come a long way since the relegation issues and ‘Bloodgate’ of even a few years ago. I imagine those with longer memories than me are pinching themselves in disbelief.
theoutofoffice 