Smiles back on Quins supporters faces today with a sound thrashing of the master race.
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On a day of dry, calm, but cold, conditions Quins returned to their USL campaign. They did not have the services of Neil McComb, Paul Marshall, Niall O’Connor, or Niall Annett, but still put out an unusually strong side for a USL match. Darren Cave made a welcome recuperative return to Quins colours after an extensive injury period, while Adam Macklin got some necessary game time as he started in the front row, and Michael Heaney continued at scrum half. Darren’s presence allowed Quins to experiment with Michael Allen on the right wing. In the absence of Neil McComb, Calum Leckey started in the second row. Richard Lutton, unregistered for AIL matches, was able to be on the bench, while a potential opportunity was given to blond wing tyro Andy Pollock. As the Ulster Senior League allows “rolling substitutions”, the bench were able to enter and leave the field when required.
The early stages of the game saw Instonians dominate both teritory and possession. However, after 10 minutes of Instonians pressure, it was Quins who entered the Inst 22 and after a number of forward drives, Mark McGrath strode over for an unconverted try. Quins then started to put further pressure on Inst and an another 5 minutes passed before Willie Stewart went over after an excel ent backline movement.
Shortly afterwards, the effervescent Michael Allen went over majestically for yet a third unconverted try. Interspersed with this, Inst scrambled over for an unconverted to bring the half time score to Inst 5 – Quins 15. By this stage Andy Pollock had made his entrance to replace the jarred and shaken Roger Kirkwood.
The 2nd half commenced with 2 Quins tries in the first 5 minutes, from Adam Macklin and debutant Andy Pollock, to extend their lead to 5 – 27.
Michael Allen increased the lead to 5 -32 , before a converted Inst try brought the score to 12 – 32, However, thereafter it was one way traffic with three more tries from the ever-supportive Andy Pollock , to bring the final score to Inst 12 – Quins 47.
This was a revitalised Quins performance against an Inst side which is unused to defeat.
While the backs scored 7 of the nine tries, the forwards provided a solid base for their startling running skills. Lineoutas and scrums were textbook, but it is probably best not to refer to the success rate for the place kicking! Having said that, apart from a horizontal deviation of about 4 metres and a verticle deviation of about 3 metres, Willie Stewart (who had an excellent match) would have added a drop goal to his already impressive award cabinet!
Mark Kettyle set-off the line with flair and confidence, Darren Cave showed his class with a performance to admire , Michael Allen showed his versatility and strength on the wing and was a constant danger, while, usually reliable sources suggest that, Andy Pollock on his debut, was the first ever Quins player to score 4 tries in a Senior match. Fabulous!
Man of the Match: a difficult choice, but the prof and I finally agreed that this should go jointly to Darren Cave and Andy Pollock.
Well done chaps. That starts to ease the pain of the Clonakilty performance. Upwards and onwards!
SCORERS: Pollock 4t, Allen 2t, Stewart 1t, McGrath 1t, Macklin 1t, Heaney 1c
Team: Miles O’Hagan, Michael Allen, Willie Stewart, Darren Cave, Roger Kirkwood, Mark Kettyle, Michael Heaney, Adam Macklin, Robert Logan, Mark Kettyle, Gareth Rourke, Calum Leckey, Andrew Gillespie (c), Ali Heatlie, Danny Annett.
Bench: Andy Pollock, David Creighton, Richard Leckie, Ian Mathew, Michael Willis,
