Quins suffer due to injuries
by Wayne Storey
Saturday saw the 3XVs first match of the season playing at home to Limavady. Following a certain amount of upheaval behind the scenes in the close season, the 2013-14 season sees the thirds under new management. Wayne Storey has stepped aside and is replaced by Ritchie Waterson, we wish Wayne all the best in his retirement as he goes to spend some quality family time with his wife and two daughters.
Well, we would be wishing him all our best but Ritchie was on holiday this week, so he took on mantle once more, even finding space in the team to pick himself. Not bad for a 50 year old with a game the following day for the Perennials. Just to be clear Wayne, that’s not what tacking a step back looks like!
Enough about Wayne, lets get on with the match. Ricky Watters kicked off and Quins were quickly on the attack in terrible conditions. Ricky Mckee cut a great line, finding himself in open space, Pete Scott ran a great support line and after a couple of phases Jonny Carey bustled over for a try, with Ricky Watters stroking over the conversion. One minute into the new season, the threes were looking unstoppable.
From the restart Quins attempted to run the ball out of their own 22. This was going to be a common tactic employed in the first half, when a kick to touch would perhaps have been the better option, as the ball was often knocked on in the poor conditions. After 5 minutes, disaster struck as Wayne Storey was forced to leave the pitch with a cut to the cheek. Rumours are circulating that he did this to himself, à la blood gate, purely to add to the drama of his summer soap opera titled ‘will he play, won’t he play’.
Down to 14 men, the Thirds were going to have to play with one hand tied behind their backs, and at times it appeared that they were intent on playing with both hands tied behind their backs with some questionable decisions!
Returning to this level following a hugely successful stint with the 4th XV was the ‘George Best’ of junior rugby, Ricky Watters. He was keen on living up to his nickname with a masterclass in kicking with the tee and out of hand. The only blemish being a drop goal attempt after ten minutes that he can be forgiven for given the pace of the game. The rest of the first half was going to fly by with the scrum looking solid and lineouts decent given the conditions.
Just as the first half was to come to a close, Matty Dass managed to hurtle down the touch line and score in the corner, with Georgie Watters getting the tough conversion with a little help from the cross bar. This brought the scores level, 17 all and everything to play for.
Quins hopes were to take a further blow however, with the full of running Ollie MacDonald picking up a muscle injury. Fair play to Ollie, he managed to stay on the pitch, switching to the wing with Kev Fog moving to fullback. The second half saw Quins kicking to the corners, with the pack forcing Limavady into a number of handling errors. At this stage a remarkable victory was looking possible, unfortunately Quins hopes were to suffer a hammer blow when talismanic No8 , Jonny ‘the new Donald Thompson’ Carey, being sent to the sin bin for a high tackle. Down to essentially 12 men, Limavady were to open a lead which Quins could not quite recover from, despite heroic efforts in the last 5 minutes, with Ross Patton at one stage looking like he was going to run the length of the field to score but it wasn’t to be. The final score was 30-20.
A lot of positives can be drawn for the performance today, with the scrum looking solid (two props and chef playing well. Notably Matt Holden on his debut game for Quins had a blinder like a cornerstone to the scrum & making Pete look good in the lineouts. Great to also see Darren back after almost a year out following a tear to his Achilles & looking as if he had never been away. Adam Finlay had a great game despite the lack of protection from referee/pack .lineouts were good in the conditions with Pete and Ben getting up well. The 10, 12, 13 combination looked like it could be very dangerous for the season, once they’ve had a couple of training sessions under they’re belts.
