Barnstaple 3 Oxford Harlequins RFC 8
Saturday 14th April 2012

A tough task lay ahead as in recent weeks Barnstaple had beaten Chinnor away and obviously their league placing, allied with the fact that in the reverse fixture Quins were well beaten indicated a tough time ahead for the travelling Quins.

Oxford Harlequins travelled to Luke Brown’s home county, who was holidaying at the family caravan. Knowing that a bonus point win would probably prolong their stay in National for a while yet.

Though buoyed by recent results & the work & application achieved in training Quins were not short of confidence at this current time. Despite that a late call from inept ex team manager Chad Hogan (probably composing his cliché ridden post for Thursday’s Oxford Mail) very late on Friday indicating he had booked Jonny Tevita (holidaying in Spain) on the wrong flight & would now need picking up from London Gatwick Airport at 9.00 Saturday morning. Then drive the 200 miles cross country for a 2.30 ko . mmmm.

Coupled that with the non appearance of Spanish winger Pablo Lucan The Gods were not on our side.

A frantic call to Ramen Farahani who was due to have his back waxed a 10.00 & all was good for the long haul.

So to the game eventually. Nick Gardener took one for the team & took the vacant wing position . His positional play & defence were out of the top drawer. Not at all bad for a hooker!
Quins started really well and spent large periods of the half in Barnstaple territory an early penalty from Matt Smith gave The Quins an early 3 0 lead.

Moments later Quins were awarded a penalty 15 metres out the ball being 35 metres out Full Back Martin Nutt ran the ball back to the site of infringement took a quick tap & darted for the line , a certain try looked on but a last ditch tackle held up Nutty just short of the line a neat offload to scrum half Jack Couzens who in turn fed to Number 8 Alex Powell who plunged over the line for the score .

Quins got into some really good positions in the half but could not take advantage of the really good approach work.

Half Time 0 8
The second half was a tense affair Skipper simon chadbone who was suffering from morning sickness being replaced by Matty Edney.

Barnstaple started coming back strongly into the game in this period & the home crowd who had been fairly quiet until now started to make some noise & as any visiting side will tell you when they get going it is like an extra man or two to compete with for any away team.

There were good moments from both sides in this half including some excellent runs from Nutty at full back, but generally the strong defence from both teams marsahlled by Matt Smith ably backed up by Jonny Tevita & Tom Jelly for the visitors helped in cancelling out the attack from both teams.

History dictated that Barum would come strong in the final quarter in the tight & so it proved despite the excellent work of the Quins front five Sam Steventon in particular.

Olly Rees replaced Alex Powell at 8 and the Naked Civil Servant Charlie Sammut relegated to the bench for his misdemeanours in the week (getting married on a training night . For heaven’s sake) more than bolstered the tiring Quins pack & high praise indeed should be afforded to the coaching team for having the foresight in selecting an all forward bench to help repel the home threat.

Into the last ten minutes & Barum set up a driving maul on the 22m line & marched ominously towards the Quins line & that home crowd noise rose significantly. 22 20 18 15 10 7metres from the line Sione Vaimaounga decided something needed to be done & burrowed so deep into Barum’s maul that he should probably have donned a miners helmet.

The yellow card quickly followed & Quins were left a man short for the games duration. Could they with stand the 5metre scrum. Nick Gardener was recalled from the wing, first one Barum had the nudge on but scrum broke up and was reset. This time the Quins answered in kind & put in a massive shove anxious wait as the ball seemed to ricochet between the front row two or three times, eventually the ref awarded scrum to Quins.

Rucks & counter rucks ensued eventually ending in Quins hands then the tortuous wait as Jack Couzens asked the ref if time was up gleefully running the ball over the dead ball line.

Then the anxious wait for the other results to filter through.

Happy Days

MOM: Sam Steventon

Cock Of The Day: Luke Brown Not rallying his local camp for support

Coaches Comments: Huge win in circumstances & the players deserve all the credit for tolerating & I think understanding our goals & targets. Also the sheer hard work they have applied in training since Christmas.





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