Maybe it does mean that - by your own admission above, and by the fairplay measure, they are playing against the fairest in t' land....maybe it rubs off?

It may also mean that, because no Quins/Broncos team I have watched in the last 12 years has ever dominated rucks and 'contacts' sufficiently to either rattle opponents or to force the error, we are unable to force teams to concede penalties. Too good for our own, er, good? I have made it a point of measuring the distance between the first point of contact ie where the tackle first commences and the last point of contact ie where the tackle concludes - the distance is either a positive or a negative one.

Invariably we dont come out of it too good, either defensively or offensively, and more often than not the opposition will make yards in the contact and we do not - this allows one team to dominate and win the collision, forcing or conceding penalties as a result. It is often the case even when we've won games.........it tells me we win games because of factors other than winning the collision but I dont think we have enough mongrel or c**t to stop, slow and bully teams around. I think the fairplay stats bear this out - we're too 'nice' so don't give away penalties and we're not 'mean' enough to force opponents to concede penalties. Just a theory of mine and certainly not fact, but worth considering I think....


That Quins get some hard calls is not in dispute, but it does go both ways by and large and even when it doesn't it's not down to bias or birthplace or domicile. Who knows - maybe teams feel the 'bonding' effect having been on the coach with each other longer than normal for this fixture, compared to others.....?

I would be more than happy to accept that a very large reason for this is lack of vociferous home support sub-consciously affecting the refereees but, once again, that's not bias or corrupt officials or referees favouring home town teams or anything like that. Human nature maybe....?

Let's not get caught up in the euphoria. Thaler was pretty awful but thankfully both ways (for once). Got loads of calls wrong but thankfully was prepared to let stuff go for the most part so did not detract from the spectacle.

Although as the midget Obst was not onside once throughout the whole 80 minutes - one penalty for offside wouldn't have been an unreasonable request!

Martin never seemed to go back the 10 either.

Judas.