Match Report for Quintin II v Old Streetonians II (Merit Table), Saturday 27th September 2008 at 3pm

Starting line-up was something like this:
1 Chairman Mao
2 Vines
3 Talentless
18 Tane *
5 Cockring
6 Neil Webber
7 Rory
8 Keenan
9 Howard
10 Terry
11 Richard Jones
12 Nick Cheadle
13 James
14 Dom
15 Chris Batthews

Substitutes:Loic *,Matt Castle, Angry, Ian Adcock,Lee May,Shakes
* Quintin uncapped...

First merit table game……a lot of expectation of success….
Unfortunately, a bad start as the opposition called uncontested scrums at the kick-off….I think because they wanted to run the ball and nothing else…It turned out that I was right!

We conceded 6 tries in the first half without any reply! Mainly because our defence was outrun by their attack…But at the breakdown, we were far better than them…they consistently fell over the ball to make it unplayable..the ref consistently penalised them but did not card anybody…Good mentions for the first half: Tane…great running on his debut…Cockring…great running again….Howard killed their winger…Bad mentions: Talentless at scrum-half handed the ball to their flanker for a try…..Sadly, both Tane and Cockring went off at halftime…

At half-time, an ambulance arrived to take away Howard's victim…this caused the attitude of Quintin to drop…Damo made an attempt to get back into the second team..but was rebuffed, as we have now signed our professional contracts!

Lee, Angry and Dr Adcock came on for the second half…with great effect….for a good 25 minutes…we were on top….we should have scored three times…but for Adcock's hamstring which broke yet again…..poor hands in the outside backs and a marginal forward pass to young Matt at the final whistle…

However, we only conceded one try in the second half….mainly due to Adcock's hamstring!
Second half Good mentions: Loic….marvellous debut..tremendous tackling in the midfield….Matt Castle…good running on the wing, unfortunate not to get the try….Rory was everywhere…Russell injected some pace at penalties and from the back of the ruck….backline start to fire with some great moves from Lee, Terry and James…..Bad mentions: that bloody hamstring!...we used 6 subs…the Ref didn't notice…we brought Dom back onto the field to replace the hamstring!

Final score: 39-0….
In summary, again, we started slowly…..but were much better in the second half…Note that Old Streetonians 1st XV are leagues above our 1s…so we did not perform that badly…with a bit more concentration and match practice,…the points will come...

Man of the match: Rory…was everywhere….at every ruck and breakdown
Honorable mention : Loic…fantastic tackling
Girl of the match : Talentless…for dereliction of duty
Dishonourable mention : Matt…for not making the forward pass look backwards…and, therefore, mssing the try!